Wait for Me: Leaving
by Fire and Sand
Summary: Sasuke left with only one request...for Naruto to stay in Konoha and wait for his return. So, what was he thinking when he agreed to do it? Now even more depressed than when he had no friends, Naruto tries to endure without Sasuke SasuSaku. later SasuNaru
1. Restlessness

Fire: Hello everyone! (waves) This is my first fanfic. I just want to establish that point. And since it was October the 10th when I first posted this... Happy birthday, Naruto!

Sasuke: Yeah...whatever.

Naruto: (singing to the tune of Happy Birthday) Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me—e. Happy birthday to me.

Fire: Now...on with the story!

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Disclaimer: Does owning Naruto stock count as owning Naruto? I don't think so… I'm just not good enough to own any part of Naruto. :(

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Warning: All Japanese terms were used for artistic reasons. If you need a glossary of all the terms, it's in my user profile. Go there!

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**Wait for Me: Leaving**

**A Fire Project**

**Chapter 1: Restlessness**

**T**here was a great uneasiness on his arm as he tried to enjoy himself, even though he didn't really want to enjoy himself; after all, it wasn't really his idea. After a great many years of avoiding her, he had finally given in and allowed himself the slow, mind numbing torture of a date with Haruno Sakura. But, that didn't mean that she was going to stop hanging off of his arm. In fact, she seemed even more glued to him than she was before.

From somewhere behind them–not too far away otherwise he was sure that he wouldn't have sensed her masked chakra–Uchiha Sasuke could feel Yamanaka Ino glaring daggers into their backs. He knew that it was a bad idea as soon as he heard the rumours flying through the streets of Konoha as easily as the sound of birds in the sky. Sakura had–indirectly, because she knew that Sasuke would probably call off the date if she proclaimed it boldly to everyone without his permission–announced to everyone that she was dating him.

It was mortifying. But it wasn't nearly as bad as when he saw the look on his blond teammate's face, on Uzumaki Naruto's face. _There_ was a face that the dark-haired boy had never seen before. Was that...pain?

_**B**ut, he hardly had any time to analyse it as the blond quickly covered it up with a huge smile. "You're going out with Sakura-chan?" He said with forced amicability. "That's...nice." Sasuke was sure that the blond chuunin had no idea what he was supposed to say._

_He had wanted to explain that it was only ONE date. It didn't mean that Sakura was his girlfriend or anything even remotely along the lines of a girlfriend. She had just pestered him for so long that he had to throw her a bone to ease his conscience. But, he somehow couldn't bring himself to say it to the blond boy who stood before him with a big, fake smile on his face and sorrowful torment behind his bright eyes. _

'Why am I hesitating like this? Just tell him!'_ His mind screamed at him to tell Naruto the truth, but secretly, he wanted to know what the blond's reaction would be. For all those years that Sakura had chased him, Naruto had chased Sakura. Would Naruto be jealous? Would he back down now that he knew that he had taken Sakura away from him?_

"_Hn." Sasuke gave his usual answer before turning away. He didn't want to answer Naruto's question. Let him think what he wanted._

"_Hey! Sasuke-teme, I asked you a question!" Naruto yelled as he ran after the dark-haired boy. "Are you deaf or just stupid!" Naruto raised a hand to smack Sasuke in the head, but the dark-haired boy quickly avoided it, leaving the blond to fume about his missed attack. "You're going out with Sakura-chan, aren't you?" _

_Naruto knew the answer before Sasuke even told him. He had already assumed it. It was nice...right? That was what he had said. _

_There was really no point in following him after that, and he left the dark-haired boy to walk to his big empty home on the Uchiha estate. If he had followed him, Naruto knew that the Uchiha would just slam the gate in his face as easily as he had done it to his many fangirls many times before._

"**S**asuke-kun! SASUKE-KUN!"

Sakura was calling his name. Sasuke turned to her slightly worried, slightly flustered face. It seemed that she has been calling him for quite some time now. "Hmm?" He hadn't heard what she was saying, but he was sure that she would repeat herself. And he was right...

"I was _saying_," she said slowly as she gave him an annoyed glance before continuing forward to sit down on a bench of many that lined the roads of Konoha, "that the Sakura trees are beautiful around this time of year. Don't you agree?" She smiled at him, the same sweet smile that Sakura and all his other fangirls gave him, constantly without rest.

It was then that Sasuke noticed the trees on both sides of the road. "Hn," he said as he looked at them.

It was the peak of spring, and the Sakura trees were at their prettiest around this time of year, so he couldn't really say that they weren't. They were pretty–he had to admit that–but...there was something missing. He felt empty.

"I'm leaving." He turned away from the pink-haired kunoichi and the trees which bore the girl's name, and began to walk away. More than anything, he knew that he didn't want to be here, looking at such beautiful cherry trees...with her.

"Nani! Sasuke-kun!" The girl jumped to her feet. "You can't leave yet! We just began our date!" They've only just begun their 'date' about fifteen minutes ago.

Sasuke waved his hand at her, almost as if sweeping the girl and her words as far from him as it possibly could. If she wanted to be on a date so much, she could just finish it herself.

He hadn't gone far before Ino jumped out of her hiding place to ambush him, but he didn't hear a thing she had said. He wanted to go home, or somewhere else secluded...so that he could train. He didn't have time for this. He needed to get stronger faster, so that he could defeat his brother. Girls...love...dates...all those things were the last thing on his mind. Itachi was the only goal he hand, and Itachi was the only goal he needed.

And when he finally reached his home, he slammed the gates in Ino's face and shut himself from the rest of the world. No distractions. He needed to focus.

**O**n the secluded road lined on both sides with Sakura trees, a blond boy in a blindingly bright orange jacket and matching pants hid. He had sensed Ino nearby, somewhere behind him, but he was sure that he was much better at hiding his chakra than the long-haired blond girl.

"I'm leaving." The words were cold and empty, but somehow, Sasuke's words sent a ripple of irrational relief through his body.

Naruto sank down on the secure branch covered in Sakura blossoms. He was sure that he stuck out like Itachi in a class of kindergarteners, but luckily for him, no one had thought to look up into the trees too closely.

There was a sense of emptiness about him as he looked down the deserted road toward where Sasuke was headed–now with Ino on his arm, but the blond boy didn't see her. The path to the Uchiha estate was rarely walked upon by the people of Konoha, so he wasn't too worried that someone would see him. He just didn't understand this hollow sensation in his chest. He had thought that he would want to run over to Sakura by now so that he could enjoy the Sakura with her, or some other excuse just so that he could be around her. But, he was strangely at peace.

"Damn Sasuke," he said under his breath as he jumped down from the tree and turned back toward the village and his apartment. "Dammit all!" He didn't even think about going to Sakura who was still sitting on that rarely used road.

He slammed the door closed soon as he was inside his apartment, striding almost angrily to his room. He threw himself onto his bed and ignored the fluffs of hair that fell over his eyes. Naruto clutched his chest as he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. It has been a long time since their last mission, and the shinobi inside him was beginning to grow restless. There wasn't even a D-ranked mission to take up his time. Now, he was just left with his thoughts, and his thoughts weren't too entertaining.

_**Hey, Kit!**_

'_Yeah, what is it, damn kitsune?'_

_**I'm bored.**_

'_Yeah, well, how do you think I feel?'_

Naruto was beginning to irritate himself. He ignored the further pleas from the Kyuubi to go out and do something more interesting, and sank further into his bed.

'_Fine,' _Naruto finally gave in to boredom even though he was sure that the Kyuubi's idea of something more interesting would include pools of blood, _'I'll go."_

The blond-haired boy rolled out of bed, grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. He needed a mission–any mission–if only to get his mind out of this thick cloud of boredom. And there was just one way that the boy could think of in order to achieve that goal. He went to Hokage tower. Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-obaachan owed him a few favours. He was sure that he would be able to squeeze a few missions out of her.

"Hey, Tsunade-obaachan!" He yelled as he slammed the door to her office open.

The seemingly young woman quickly lifted her head from atop her desk and looked groggily around. "N...Nani?" She said as she looked around the room before her eyes settled on the form of Naruto standing in front of her desk. She peeled a piece of paper from her face as she sat up straighter. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"I'm bored. Give me a mission!" He held his hand forward as if she would hand him the mission right then and there.

"Brat!" She smacked his hand away. "Go home and leave me alone. I have important work to do. Besides, all the missions are done for now. We don't have any left for you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, right..." he drawled as he focussed in on a few dark ink marks on her face, leftover from the many times that she has fallen asleep at her desk. He doubted that she would be able to wash that off, even if she scrubbed it hard with lots and lots of soap. "There's always D-rank missions."

Tsunade stared at the boy. She wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly. "D...ranked...missions?" She said slowly, not believing her ears. Naruto–a boy who has come running into her office thousands of times before, complaining about the low-ranked missions that she assigned to him–was asking for a D-ranked mission. She immediately jumped up from her desk and rushed to his side, setting him down in a chair and feeling his forehead for signs of a fever. "Naruto, daijoubu!" She was practically panicking over his condition. _'D-ranked mission! He must have a fever! Or a disease? Yeah! He probably has some kind of illness...I have to–'_

"Tsunade-obaachan, what are you doing?" Naruto pulled away forcefully and stumbled out of his chair, away from her. "I'm not sick. I'm just bored!" He wiped his forehead with his hands to get rid of the feeling of Tsunade's hands on it.

Tsunade sighed a breath of relief before walking back to her chair. It was true that she was a little overprotective of him, but then, it was only natural to be overprotective of a boy who reminded her so much of Nawaki, own little brother. "Gomen...Naruto, but there really aren't any missions, not even a D-rank mission," she said with another sigh as she sat down. She still couldn't shake the thought that he might be sick, that she should at least run a few simple tests on him. "You should find something else to take up your time and stop coming here to annoy me. You've been here every day for the last few weeks."

Naruto frowned at her. "Fine," he said with the same air that Sasuke gave off every time he grunted an expression. "Demo..." he turned back at her before he left to say the same thing that he had said every day for the past few weeks, "I want the first mission that passes over your desk." And he stormed out of Hokage tower, back toward his empty home with only his houseplants and his scrolls to keep him company. (That and the Kyuubi, but no one knew about that.)

Tsunade smiled with suppressed annoyance at the boy before waving goodbye to him–her eyebrow was twitching already from the short time that she was with the young chuunin. She didn't feel as if she needed to tell him that that was exactly what she was going to do. She had already said it before. But no doubt even if she had repeated herself, the blond would still be back the next day...and the day after that...and the day after that until she actually handed him a mission.

The woman sank back onto her desk. If she actually had a mission, she would have sent an entire team of ANBU to find Naruto and give it to him. Then, maybe she could get some peace and quiet around here.

**S**asuke wandered around his house aimlessly. Sure, he had said that he was going to train, and he had tried that, but it only left him feeling empty. He had stopped not long after he realized how useless it was. It was futile to think that he could defeat his brother just because he was good at throwing a shuriken at a straw training dummy, or at an unmoving log. Itachi wasn't that stupid. He wasn't just going to stand there and let Sasuke cover his body with a mass of shuriken.

He needed a sparring partner.

And the only one he could think of was Naruto.

But he wasn't going to go looking for Naruto. He couldn't look for Naruto!

"Kuso!" He slammed his fist into the side of a wall–effectively producing a tiny crack–as he made his way into the living room, then out onto the walkway that lined the gardens inside walls surrounding the compound of buildings that made up his personal home. The rest of the Uchiha estate, where his extended family once lived, was deserted.

He didn't have any destination in mind. He was just walking around, trying to work off some of this boredom, this emptiness, this restlessness within him. Slowly, he was beginning to regret leaving Sakura all alone out there. At least he wouldn't be bored if he was with her...

"Kuso!" He uttered again under his breath as he glared out at the garden. Now he was beginning to feel guilty, and that guilt was irking him to no ends.

'_Dammit all to bloody hell!' _He thought as he stormed toward the front door. He slammed it closed, ignoring the sound of ripping paper doors and falling frames as he stalked toward the gates to the estate. Now, he was feeling guilty about hurting Sakura's feelings. He might not love her, but she was still his friend. _'If I can't be with Naruto, why not settle for the next best thing?'_

The dark-haired boy found the pink-haired kunoichi still sitting where he had left her. It seemed as if she really did intend to finish their date without him, and it only made him feel more guilty about leaving her all alone.

"Sasuke-kun!" She screamed as she jumped to her feet, all ecstatic when she saw him. "You came back!" She was waving hysterically to him now.

"Oi, Sakura," he said slowly, not even daring to meet her eyes. He felt too guilty about leaving her all alone to look her in the eye. "Gomen."

**End Chapter 1**

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	2. Realization

Fire: Me again! For returning readers, thank you for coming back for the second chapter of Wait for Me: Leaving. For new readers, I hope you enjoy my story. And to those who have sent reviews, I really appreciate it so keep them coming.

Sasuke: (surprised but trying not to show it) People actually read your story and reviewed...?

Fire: Yes... (turning back to the audience) Recently, I've been facing the dilemma of how often I should post. It seems as if most writers out there posts their stories about once a week or once every two weeks. Please send me an email, or a review**–**whichever one is easier for you–and let me know your opinion. I can post as frequently as once every day, but I'm trying to lean away from that although it is hard to wait the entire seven days before I can post the next chapter.

Sasuke: It's fine the way it is...

Fire: We're going to let the people decide! (turning back to the audience) Well, enough of my babbling. I forgot to write down the legend last time so here it is. I don't plan on writing it again for the next chapters.

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Legend:

regular text

"spoken text"

'_thoughts'_

_flashbacks_

_**Kyuubi's speech**_

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**Chapter 2: Realization**

**N**aruto couldn't believe his ears when he heard the news. With his mouth hanging slightly open, he could only stare at the slightly embarrassed expression on Sasuke's face. It took him a moment to compose himself and wipe the drool that had escaped from his open mouth. "Say that again?" He had to hear it again, just to make sure that his ears were working properly. He would give it the benefit of a doubt that he might have just been daydreaming a nightmare.

"Sasuke-kun and I are dating!" Sakura said happily with the same voice that she would have used to announce an engagement. She tightened her grip on the dark-haired boy's arm as she received the reactions of the people around her.

Naruto felt his heart freeze over. The world turned black and the spring–which was around him a moment before–shattered and crumbled to the ground in pieces. He had heard correctly the first time. He wasn't just hearing things.

"Masaka," Ino said as she looked from Sakura to Sasuke. She was very reluctant to believe any of this. Sasuke didn't look too happy about that arrangement. "You've got to be kidding me, forehead-girl!"

"Yeah," Chouji said as he munched on another handful of potato chips. "Sasuke hates your–!" His head shot forward as Neji slapped him from behind. That wasn't something that Sakura needed to know.

"W–we're...very h–ha–happy for you, S–Sakura-chan," Hinata said, her eyes lowered and her forefingers pushing against each other nervously as she spoke. A boyfriend was something she could never bring herself to think about...especially not a boy like Sasuke.

And during all these rounds of congratulations, Naruto was still frozen in his shattered world. He didn't know why, but his heart was bleeding. "I–" the blond stopped as he heard his voice crack. He took a deep swallow before speaking again, hoping that that was enough to clear his voice because he was certainly too nervous to loudly clear his throat. "I'm happy for you." He turned around and walked away before they could see the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

Naruto wiped furiously at his eyes, smearing them from his face. _'You promised yourself that you won't cry anymore, baka!' _He scolded himself as he half-walked, half-stumbled toward his apartment. But, the gripping pain in his chest, and the freezing darkness that surrounded his heart were persistent masters that wouldn't allow him any action other than tears at the moment. "Naruto, you really are an idiot," he said to himself as he staggered against the cool wall of a supposedly friendly-looking building. At that moment, everything seemed to be against him, so he wasn't too sure if the building was friendly or not. He just slumped to the ground, the heels of his palms buried in his eye sockets.

The blond sat there, empty of everything. He didn't know how long he sat there, just that the sky darkened overhead and soon there were no lights out. He didn't know why he was sitting there, and he didn't understand the pain that had seeped into his chest. All he knew was that he didn't like it, and that he wanted it to go away.

**_Hey Kit! It's dark. Let's get home now. I have no intention of dying of a cold._** That would certainly be embarrassing. The Kyuubi and his jinchuuriki...dead because of a cold. **_Kit! Hey Kit!_**

But, not even the cries of the Kyuubi could pull him out of his sorrow.

**S**asuke watched as Naruto wandered away. He thought that the dobe was going to fall over from shock; he was staggering that much. The dark-haired chuunin didn't know why, but a pang of pain shot through him at the sight of the blond walking away from him so disappointedly. At that moment, he wanted to grab hold of the blond, to explain to Naruto that it wasn't true, that it didn't mean anything. He was only dating Sakura because he felt guilty for hurting her before. She wasn't really his girlfriend. It was only ONE date!

Everyone else could go to hell for all he cared. He just wanted Naruto to know the truth!

But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to run forward after the blond.

'Doushite? Why do I want to explain it to Naruto so badly?'

"Chikusho," he swore as he turned away from the crowd. He pushed Sakura aside as he walked away from the Rookie Nine and Gai's team that surrounded the 'new couple.' He felt so constricted inside. He felt so...suffocated. Why?

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called out from behind, and he heard her, but he wasn't going to go back. He wasn't ready to face her yet. He needed to be alone. "Sasuke-kun!"

"Ha! Forehead-girl isn't even important enough for Sasuke-kun to acknowledge!" Ino giggled to the side but was interrupted by a smack from Sakura. Ino was one to talk; Sasuke ignored her too!

In fact, Sasuke was ignoring everyone at the moment. He wanted to be alone, alone with his thoughts._ 'Or...with Naruto.'_ The thought surprised him for a moment before he brushed it off. He had wanted to be with Naruto lots of times before. This was no different. Naruto was his teammate. Naruto was his training partner. Naruto was his best friend.

He had to find Naruto.

But, his feet wouldn't listen to him. His feet took him home, and Sasuke found himself wandering around his home again, restless. He was an animal in a cage who couldn't seem to find a way out. He wanted to talk to Naruto, but the apprehension in his heart, the thoughts of doubt in his mind wouldn't allow him to seek Naruto out. And he didn't know why.

All this confused him. It confused him even more the next morning, and the morning after that, and soon, he just stopped seeing Naruto altogether.

He had always thought that it was impossible to avoid the blond completely, but after two months, he realized that he had actually managed it. They didn't have missions anymore because of the drought in missions, and Kakashi-sensei seemed to have gone missing altogether. It was supposed to be the chuunin's job to teach at the academy, but there was no shortage of teachers, so that was out of the question. Without Kakashi-sensei, Team Seven just slowly ceased to even get together anymore...not even to train.

But, Sasuke knew that he couldn't just keep avoiding the blond. He could do it for a month–or in this case, two months–but he knew that he couldn't do it forever. Konoha was only so big...and after those two months, they found each other again.

Sasuke was walking through a busy section of Konoha with Sakura at his side. Lately, he had found it impossible to go anywhere without finding the pink-haired kunoichi at his side–not because he wanted her with him, but because she found him wherever he went.

He was out buying food for the house. He had opened the fridge this morning to find it empty, bare of everything except for a lonely box of baking soda. So, he had thought to get some food to fill it up. What he hadn't expected was to see the blond-haired chuunin there as well.

His heart pounded erratically in his chest as he met the beautifully clear sapphire eyes of the blond-haired shinobi. _'Did I just think that his eyes are beautiful! Chikusho...what's wrong with me?' _ Sasuke had to look away immediately, one hand clutching his chest as the other smacked himself in the head. His body was out of control. He had no idea why he was acting like this. It was only Naruto!

"Sasuke?" Naruto had seen him! "Daijoubu?"

Sasuke slowly lifted his head up to look at the blond. It was such a long time since he last saw him. It felt like an eternity. He never realized how much he wanted to see him until then...to talk to him until then. _'Then, why can't I say anything to him now?'_

The dark-haired chuunin's eyes were wide, making even his pitch-black eyes shine with light for a moment. "N–Naruto," he said slowly as he looked into the other boy's eyes. His mouth was too dry to say anything else.

"Naruto-kun, I haven't seen you in such a long time!" Sakura interrupted Sasuke before he could say anything further. "How have you been?"

And Sasuke couldn't help but glare at his 'girlfriend.' He didn't know why, but at that moment, he was filled with such animosity toward her that he almost stabbed her in the neck with a kunai. In fact, he had to use almost all of his willpower just to stop his hand before it could reach the little beige kunai pouch behind him, the pouch that he always carried with him, just in case he came across Itachi. He didn't want to run into his brother without at least a few weapons on hand.

"Funny...uh...meeting you here," Naruto said with a wide grin that hid his discomfort expertly. His voice was a little nervous as he raised a hand behind his head to scratch a spot that was suddenly itchy. "What...a coincidence." His voice was slow as he tried to figure out what to say, but then, it wasn't that hard to think of what to say. _'Say anything but the fact that you were following them,'_ his mind instructed. _'I wasn't following Sasuke! That's it. I wasn't following him at all!'_

"What are you doing here, Naruto-kun?" Sakura's face was beaming as she asked the question.

'_Poor unsuspecting girl,' _Sasuke thought bitterly as he mentally shook his head at the girl's naive words. He knew why Naruto was here. Naruto was here because he was jealous of him. Naruto was here following Sakura. At least, that was what Sasuke thought. No matter what excuse the blond might make for being here, he couldn't possibly be shopping for _real_ food in the open-air marketplace. Sasuke knew better. The blond chuunin didn't eat anything except for ramen.

"I...um...I was shopping for food. I thought that it would be nice to put some..." He looked around for the closest food item that he could find. That would best explain why he was in this part of the market, considering how the marketplace was enormous, and it really would be a huge coincidence to find all three of the members of Team Seven in the same small part of the marketplace at the same time without actually having planning to do it. "Squid!" He grabbed the nearest squid from the stand at his side.

Both Sakura and Sasuke visibly sweat dropped. _'Squid? In ramen?' _They both thought the same thought as they looked at the incredibly conspicuous boy.

"Y–yeah, squid," the blond said as he turned to the seafood merchant. "How much is it?"

"About eighty thousand yen for that one," the man said as he looked at the incredibly large creature in Naruto's hands.

Naruto paled visibly at the price. "Ano...too pricey for me," he said as he carefully put the squid back.

"Guess you won't be able to eat squid with your ramen after all, Naruto-kun," Sakura said as she smiled at him. It wasn't a real smile. She was only putting one up so that she could ignore the thought that was forming in her head. She didn't really want to think that he might be following her around out of jealousy for Sasuke being her boyfriend. That was just creepy. _'Now, go away! Leave us alone...'_

"Guess not," Naruto said as he smiled the big foxy smile that he was so well-known for.

"Well, let's find you something else to put in your ramen," Sasuke said, a rare sentence from the ever silent Uchiha. He didn't want Naruto to go yet.

'_Sasuke! Why didn't you make him go away!'_ Sakura almost screamed when she heard Sasuke's comment, but she continued smiling and followed after them, careful not to lose them in the crowd.

"O–okay," Naruto said slowly although he was sure that he wouldn't be able to buy anything. He didn't want to tell them that he didn't even have his wallet on him. He wouldn't be able to keep up the charade that he was here to shop if he didn't even have his money on him.

Naruto really wanted to get away from them. He felt a little guilty for spying on them like this. And a very good shinobi he was...getting caught like this. Shinobi were supposed to be stealthy, and he had just failed thoroughly and miserably at that, even if Sasuke and Sakura were two of the most talented...two of the smartest shinobi in his graduating class.

But, he just couldn't bring himself to get away from them. They hadn't all been together for such a long time. Okay, he knew that it was only two months, but it felt like forever to him. At least Sasuke and Sakura had each other. He had nobody.

And he had really missed Sasuke...

"How about this, Naruto?" With a pleasant smile on his face, Sasuke pointed to a small slab of meat in a butcher's window. It looked to be pork.

Naruto smiled back at the dark-haired shinobi. It felt so natural to be shopping with him. It felt as if they have been doing this forever. "It looks good...Sasuke." It felt as if there were just the two of them here in this entire market, and for a moment, Naruto was content.

"Well, buy it then," Sakura interrupted, breaking the two boys out of their own little universe.

It was Naruto's turn to glare at Sakura this time, but unlike Sasuke, he didn't have enough time actually glaring at her to even think of hurting her. He was too surprised by the fact that he was even glaring at her. This was _Sakura-chan _he was glaring at, not Jiraiya, or Kakashi-sensei. This was Sakura-chan! What was he doing, glaring at her?

But, he knew what he was doing as soon as his eyes darted to Sasuke at Sakura's side.

'_Damn it all,'_ he thought as he realized what was wrong with him. He had tried to ignore it...all those weird thoughts that had risen into his mind over the last two months, and even before that. But he felt his heart quicken and knew that he couldn't hide it from himself anymore. He was in love with Sasuke.

'_**K**uso! Kusokusokusokusokuso!' _Sasuke thought as he saw Naruto looking at him with his wide blue eyes. _'Why does he have to be here? And looking at me with those eyes of his!'_ Sasuke thought he was going to have a heart attack. His heart hadn't slowed down once since they ran into Naruto. If he didn't slow it down soon, he was going to explode.

"Sasuke-kun, daijoubu?" Sakura looked at her boyfriend worriedly. He was just standing there, staring at Naruto with a beaten look on his face.

Sasuke snapped out of his trance immediately and turned to look at the pink-haired kunoichi. "Hn," he said as he turned and walked sharply away. If Naruto was going to shop, then he wasn't going to be here to watch it. It was that simple. He had his own things to buy, and there was no way that he was going to do it with both Naruto and Sakura there. That was just too complicated.

"Yarou," Naruto said passingly as he realized that Sasuke was just going to walk away...and after brutally ignoring Sakura-chan's question too.

At that, Sasuke turned back, his Sharingan flaring up brightly for a moment before vanishing at the sight of the blond's wide grin. That was what Naruto was hoping to do, and he had accomplished it. For just a moment, there was the familiar air that surrounded them all those years ago when they all first came together to form Team Seven.

"Dobe," he said before turning away again. He walked away before he could allow himself to think of anything more to say to the blond. That would only give him more of an excuse to stay around, and that would defeat the whole purpose of getting away from him in the first place.

**N**aruto walked home with a big bag of groceries in his arms. Sakura had paid for all of the food as an apology for Sasuke's behaviour, even though there really was no reason for it–Sasuke was usually mean to him anyway–but she insisted with such an apologetic look on her face that he couldn't really turn her down.

The blond dumped his bags on the table before beginning the chore of putting them away. He sighed deeply as he closed the fridge, shutting himself off from the newly bought food inside. He didn't like to think about it, but he seemed to really be thinking about Sasuke lately, and it was beginning to annoy him. It wasn't as if he never thought about Sasuke before. In fact, he used to think about the dark-haired boy a lot, but now, there seemed to be strange thoughts about him floating around his head.

"Baka na Sasuke...has to invade my thoughts," Naruto mumbled to himself as he sank into the living room to stare out the window. He had images of Sasuke floating through his mind, and they weren't the usual images of a broken and beaten Sasuke, and a triumphant Naruto. "Dammit all!" He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his hand against his face. He had to try to shut it out!

"Naruto," a cheerful voice came from the open window near his head.

Naruto looked up to see an upside down Iruka-sensei climbing into his living room. "Iruka-sensei?" Naruto had half-expected to see Kakashi-sensei there, even if the grey-haired jounin has been missing for two months. Kakashi was the one who always climbed into his apartment like that. He never even knew that Iruka would climb into a building like that. He had always taken the brown-haired academy teacher for someone who would more likely walk through the front door. "What are you doing here?"

"I promised Kakashi that I would drop by to check up on you," the man said as he sat down at Naruto's side. The blond shifted over so that the brown-haired man could sit down. "Besides, I was wondering how you were doing as well. I haven't seen you around for almost two months."

Naruto sat up slightly before falling back onto the couch. He didn't know what to say. He had thought that no one would really care how he was. He had forgotten about Iruka in his two months of isolation. "Leave me alone," he said as he rolled over, turning his back on the man. He didn't really know why he had said that. Maybe it was because of all the thoughts of Sasuke that had clouded his mind lately, but he really did want to be left alone. "Onegai, Iruka-sensei, just leave me alone."

For a moment, Iruka looked at the boy who lay with his back toward him before rising from his seat. "Of course," he said, just a tiny bit depressed before heading back to the window. "I'll check up on you again later."

Naruto felt the man's chakra fade from the room before he allowed himself to sit up with another deep sigh. He was so... He didn't know what he was. There was just an emptiness within him, and he couldn't even find a mission to distract himself from it.

"Sasuke," he whispered to himself as he stared down at his empty hands. He couldn't be in love with the dark-haired chuunin. Not with Sasuke! It was too strange. It was surreal. "I'm not in love with him," he decided, sinking himself into comfortable denial. "He's just my best friend, that's all." His face contorted as he tried to think of an argument to back up what he had just said. _'I'm in love with Sakura-chan.'_

**_If you love her so much, why did you snap at her? Admit it; you're in denial, Kit. You want to be with that dark-haired boy. _**The Kyuubi was intruding on his thoughts again. **_Just admit it already and we can stop sulking around the house, and we can go kill that little pink-haired kunoichi._**

'_We're not sulking around the house!' _Naruto couldn't believe that the Kyuubi would saythat._'I'm not in love with Sasuke! And I'm definitely not going to kill Sakura-chan!' _Killing Sakura-chan? That was another one of the Kyuubi's twisted ideas of fun.

_**Says the naive little boy...**_

'_Urusai!' _Naruto shut his mind off from the Kyuubi, or at least, shut his mind off as much as he could from a demon who shared his mind with him.

**_So touchy lately..._** the Kyuubi complained, rolling his eyes mentally at Naruto's words. **_So restless... You wouldn't be restless if you were with Sasuke._**

"I said shut up!" Naruto shouted aloud as he pushed himself up from his couch. It was true. He wanted to go and find Sasuke now, but he wasn't going to do it. He wasn't going to act on it. If Sasuke knew, it would only be worse. They hardly even talked to each other anymore. He didn't want to alienate him all together.

Naruto sighed as he sank back down into his seat on the couch. No, it would be best if he just let Sasuke enjoy his new life with his girlfriend...without him. They seemed happy together anyway.

'_So...why can't I stop feeling so...' _He wiped the tears from his eyes. He felt so broken inside.

**End Chapter 2**

**---------------------------**

Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

In case you haven't noticed, I use 'toward' instead of the more popular 'towards' and although I know that this might annoy a lot of people, it is correct English grammar. If any of you are shouting "WHAT!" don't be too shocked. I'm just used to the American spelling used in the USA which use 'toward' instead of 'towards' which is predominantly used in Great Britain and Canada. Sorry if it's causing any inconvenience.


	3. Heartbreak

Fire: This is Fire again. Third week, third chapter. Thanks for all the reviews. I love reading all of them. As for the bit of English trivia I had last week, countries which used to be British colonies like Australia and Hong Kong also use the British towards.

Sasuke: Stop acting like all our readers are stupid!

Fire: I'm not! I just want to include everyone! Anyway, continuing reviewing. I want to hear everyone's opinion on my stories. No flames yet... (Fire attempts to whistle but fails...continues on with just rocking back and forth, waiting for flames)

Sasuke: (whistles a perfect tune) Baka.

Fire: (cries) If you don't remember the legend, go to Chapter 2 otherwise, here's the story.

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**Chapter 3: Heartbreak**

**F**or many days, Sasuke found himself standing in front of Naruto's apartment. He hadn't noticed that he was doing it until after that day in the open-air marketplace when he ran into Naruto. He came to the jinchuuriki's door more often than he actually liked to admit.

Today, he had walked all the way up to the blond's door, his hand hovering again over the solid wooden barrier that separated him from Naruto's world...Naruto's private world. But, he always stopped himself. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to call on the fair-haired chuunin.

As always, he would run as he felt the presence of fangirls surrounding him. They were beginning to understand his routine. They knew that he would come here eventually. He would suddenly find himself standing in front of Naruto's apartment, even though he hadn't thought about going there. It was beginning to scare him.

'_What's wrong with me?' _He stared at his outstretched hand as he curled it closed, away from the door again. He had a little more time before the fangirls found him. _'Why did I come here? Did I come to see him? But if I came to see him, why can't I knock on this door? Why can't I face him?'_

He asked himself those questions even though he already knew the answers. He didn't want to face reality. He wasn't _ready _to face reality yet. He didn't want to admit that he was in love with his blond teammate.

'_It's just Naruto...'_ Confused, Sasuke squeezed his hand tighter, stared at it, willed it to fall on the door. _'Just knock on the door...' _But his hand refused to move.

"Sa...suke?"

Sasuke quickly looked up from his hand to find the door wide open. And standing there, in his orange outfit with his beautiful blond hair bound by his hitai-ate, was Naruto. The blond stared at him with his eyes wide open in surprise, and for a moment, Sasuke entertained the thought of grabbing him and kissing him hello, but he quickly shook that crazy thought out of his head. That wasn't an appropriate thought at a time like this!

"What are you doing here?"

"Naruto...uh..." Sasuke panicked as he looked around quickly. He could sense fangirls approaching. "Get inside!" He took two quick steps forward, pushed the blond back into his apartment before slamming the door closed. He just hoped that none of his fangirls actually saw him run in here. He didn't want anyone to know that he was in Naruto's apartment.

"Dammit Sasuke, what are you dong here?" Naruto demanded as he stumbled backward from the sudden push that Sasuke had issued to him. "And what did you push me for!"

Sasuke placed a finger to his lips to silence the other boy before pressing his ear against the door. Outside, he could hear the crazed shriek of a crowd of girls running in a direction that they thought he might have gone. He only allowed himself a slight sigh of relief when he was sure that they were all gone.

"Grrr... Sasuke-teme, I asked you a question," Naruto said with a hostile growl. This was the same thing that had happened only a few days earlier at the marketplace. But, he wasn't going to take a grunt for an answer this time. No matter how happy he was to see the dark-haired boy... "And you better answer with real words this time!"

"I'm hiding," the dark-haired chuunin said simply. Only two words, and it wasn't as if he was telling a lie. It was a half-truth really. He was kind of hiding from those fangirls–who still wouldn't back off, even after they found out that he was dating Sakura–and he was also hiding from Sakura as well. At least Ino had given up in respect for Sakura after finding out about their relationship.

As for Sakura...he knew that it wasn't nice to hide from his girlfriend, but he just couldn't stand her! She just wouldn't leave him alone, especially after he had thrown her that bone and gone out on ONE DATE with her. Now, she just wouldn't go away. Ironic. To use Shikamaru's words: it was troublesome. He didn't really want her as a girlfriend. All he wanted was...

The dark-haired boy looked a little sheepishly at Naruto. He didn't like to think that he was also here to see Naruto.

"Well, hide somewhere else," Naruto said, his voice full of hostility as he glared at the dark-haired boy. He hadn't seen _that_ look on Sasuke's face before. "I don't have time to entertain you." His voice was filled with bitterness as well.

"I'm not asking to be entertained," Sasuke said as he looked around. "I just need a place to hide for a while."

This was the first time that he has actually been inside Naruto's home, and he was regretting it. The place was a mess. Scrolls lay everywhere, half-rolled-up or sprawling across flat surfaces–actually across most surfaces whether they were flat or uneven. Clothes littered the floor so that Sasuke couldn't step anywhere without tangling his foot in something first. There were discarded ramen cups everywhere: on the floor, on the tables, on the windowsill next to a surprisingly healthy-looking houseplant. There were even ramen cups on the sofa for which he was headed. And dust hung thickly in the air, making a mist of dust to cloud his vision. In total, Naruto's home was a neat freak's nightmare. And Sasuke was a neat freak.

"Dammit Naruto, your apartment's a dump!" Sasuke just couldn't not tell him.

"Yeah, well, if you don't like it, you should just clean it," Naruto said with a low growl as he grumbled to the kitchen which was much more to his liking. _'I can't believe that I thought that I was in love with him! I must be going crazy,'_ he thought as he switched the electric kettle on to boil water for some cup ramen.

After a moment, there was a shout from the living room. "Naruto!" Sasuke was standing in front of a nasty-looking fuzzy green-backed animal/pile of clothes/pile of garbage/pile of scrolls. "Do you have any cleaning supplies?" He would just have to kill the 'animal' later, whatever it was...

"Cleaning supplies?" The blond stood frozen for a moment. _'He's actually going to clean my apartment?'_ But after a moment, he couldn't think of any reason why he would be against it. _He_ wasn't the one who was going to go through all that junk. "You want cleaning supplies?" Naruto thought to himself. Did he have cleaning supplies?

"Never mind," Sasuke let out another sigh before turning to the living room once more. He should have known that the blond would have no idea where the cleaning supplies were, if he even had any cleaning supplies to begin with. The apartment was a mess. He wouldn't be surprised if there weren't any cleaning equipment in the apartment at all.

'_Well...I can't argue with it if I want to hide here for a while...'_ Sasuke pushed his arm warmers up his arm and stuck his hands into the nearest pile of...whatever it was. _'Uggh... But I wish he had cleaning gloves or something like that to protect my hands.'_

It took longer than it would have taken Sasuke if he had actually had some heavy-duty cleaning soap with him, but after a lot of scrubbing, dusting, washing, picking up things and straightening things, Sasuke was left with a clean apartment, even if there were a few stubborn stains left over, but then, he really did need soap and a lot more elbow grease before he would get that out. In the end, he was left with an impressive pile of steaming clothing in one corner of the room, waiting to be washed, and a mound of mean-looking garbage, waiting to be taken outside.

"Wow, Sasuke! The place looks so clean," Naruto said as he dropped an empty ramen cup and used chopsticks absentmindedly onto the ground.

Sasuke sighed as he picked it up, wiped the small pool of soup that had spilled onto the floor and tossed the cup into a trash bucket he had unearthed not too long ago. "Naruto, put your garbage in the garbage can," Sasuke said with a weary sigh. He was beginning to regret having come in here to hide.

Naruto frowned at the other boy, suddenly extremely irritated. There really was no reason for it, but he felt so angry. Sasuke was being superior again, like he was Kami-sama, even in Naruto's home! "It's my apartment! I'll do what I want!" And with that, Naruto stormed out of his apartment, slamming the door after him.

With the vibration of the slamming door still reverberating through the room, Sasuke sighed, sinking into the only couch in the living room as the scrolls he had re-rolled and replaced onto the shelves not too long ago shook themselves free and fell to the ground in soft thuds. He doubted that Naruto even realized that he had locked the dark-haired shinobi in his house. "Dobe," Sasuke said as he sulked. "Can't believe that he would just leave me alone like this."

**N**aruto was already far from his home when he realized that he had just locked Sasuke in his apartment. He slapped himself in the face for his stupidity before turning around and heading back to his home. He couldn't even remember how exactly Sasuke managed to annoy him so much that he could have forgotten that he was in his own apartment. _'I mean...if he's so annoying, why didn't I just kick him out? He can't just kick me out of my own home!'_

He growled to himself as he pulled his door open. The blond was all ready to yell at Sasuke and to kick him out of his apartment, but, as he looked around his unnaturally clean home, he realized that Sasuke was gone.

The boy heaved a sigh of relief as he stepped into the room, closing the door lightly behind him; they had rough handled it twice today already, and he was afraid that if he should close it too hard one more time, it might fall off its hinges.

Naruto fell onto the couch, almost exactly where Sasuke had sat not too long ago, and sank down into his seat. Suddenly, he felt empty again. He hadn't even realized that the feeling of restlessness, of loneliness, of general emptiness was gone until this moment. But of course, it was back now.

"Arrgh!" He rubbed his head vigorously, messing up his hair with both hands. "What's wrong with me!" The day was suddenly duller. He needed something to do! _'This has nothing to do with Sasuke! I was feeling this way before too!'_ His mind was yelling at himself, and somewhere in the back, he could hear the Kyuubi trying to hide a laugh at his stupidity.

"Oi!" A muffled voice came from beyond the front door as the doorknob rattled urgently. "I didn't lock the door."

Naruto sat up where he was and looked around. That was Sasuke's voice! "Sasuke!" He found himself standing instantly at his front door. He threw the door open, causing a strained groan from its hinges.

"Naruto?" Sasuke was standing on Naruto's doorstep, his hand still raised with fingers curled where it was holding a doorknob a moment ago. "What are you doing back here so soon?" He was sure that Naruto was going to be angry for a while longer yet.

"It's my apartment, teme," Naruto said as he glared at the other boy. "What are you doing back here?" He was sure that Sasuke had left.

"I was tossing out the garbage, dobe," Sasuke said as he pushed his way back into the apartment. If he didn't, he was sure that the blond would have slammed the door in his face.

"Hey!" Naruto felt himself pushed aside. "I never said that you could come in!"

"Yeah, well I'm avoiding Sakura," Sasuke said as he fell onto the clean couch, causing his bangs to fly around his head. He looked at Naruto with feathers of black sprawled over his eyes. "And I doubt that she would think to look for me here." It has been a long time since he actually found himself alone, without Sakura at his side. This was the last place that he could think of. Amongst other things...

Sasuke looked over, sneaking a look at Naruto before straightening in his seat and sinking deeper into the cushions. _'Stop thinking about him!' _What had happened to his thoughts about Itachi? His mind was constantly filled with thoughts about aniki ever since that night, when he... He couldn't even finish the thought! Why was his mind suddenly overrun by this blond jinchuuriki!

"Sasuke?" Naruto closed the door lightly, then made his way to the dark-haired chuunin.

The Uchiha looked up at the blond with an inquiring look on his face. "Nan des-ka, Naruto?"

The blond shinobi's eyes were dark with emotion. For a moment, the world ceased to exist as Naruto stood in front of the dark-haired shinobi.

Then, Sasuke's vision blurred and he felt his head twist violently to the side as Naruto's fist collided with the side of his head. "How...dare...you!" Naruto spoke through clenched teeth, his voice dripping with rage. "How _dare_ you disrespect Sakura-chan like that!" If Sakura was his girlfriend, he would definitely _not_ be avoiding her so heartlessly!

"Ow...Naruto!" Sasuke growled as he rubbed his head where Naruto had hit him, hard. He glared at the blond-haired chuunin with the coldest look that could shoot out of his lightless black eyes. Then he rose to his feet. "Baka!" He snapped as he headed for the door.

Naruto watched as Sasuke walked out of his apartment, closing the door after him with a soft click. Sasuke was mad. Naruto could tell that Sasuke was mad. "Chikusho," Naruto growled to himself. Now, Sasuke would never want to come back to him again. _'I screwed up!'_

**_You should go after him, _**the Kyuubi said with a mental smirk on his face. There was only the slightest touch of sarcasm in his voice. **_You ARE_ _in love with him, you know?_**

'_Urusai,'_ Naruto thought wearily. He was too tired to really argue with the Kyuubi at this moment. _'Damn Kyuubi.'_

But, the Kyuubi didn't even take the time to rebuke him for his rude reply. There was only the echo of mocking laughter left in Naruto's mind.

**S**akura looked around one end of the street before turning around and looking around the other end; he wasn't here either. The pink-haired kunoichi sighed as she gave up for the day. She had thought that Sasuke would stop doing that by now. She was supposed to be his girlfriend...right? Then, why is he still running away?

She sat down in front of the counter at Ichiraku's with a sullen look on her face. She had looked everywhere for Sasuke, but she still couldn't find him, just like all the days before.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto's voice came from the entrance as he walked under the cloth flaps that hung from the edge of the roof. "What are you doing here?" He sat down beside her.

The kunoichi sighed as she stared down at the drink that Ayame the ramen girl had set down. She took the straw between her index finger and thumb and pulled it toward her mouth, taking a slow sip before she spoke. "I was looking for Sasuke-kun," she said with another slight sigh. She was almost fed up with searching for him. Just almost. She knew that she would never really give up. It was Sasuke after all.

"Oh," Naruto said softly. What she had said at that moment just confirmed what he had thought passingly in his mind as he saw her. He had thought that she was here waiting for Sasuke, or was resting after being with Sasuke, or something else Sasuke related. She _was_ taking a break between sessions of searching for Sasuke. He wasn't that far off from the truth. At least the Sasuke part was valid. He could understand why Sasuke was hiding from Sakura now. Even Naruto wasn't too crazy about the idea of a full-time stalker...and Sasuke had a whole legion of them.

'_Arrgh! Stop thinking about Sasuke!'_

"How are you these days, Naruto?" Sakura asked, all politeness in her voice. "I don't get to see you a lot now that..." Her eyes fell again as her words trailed off. "...Kakashi-sensei isn't around anymore." She spoke slowly, her voice reluctant to say those last words. She never thought that she would have to say it out loud. After all, she never wanted to acknowledge that they had no idea where their grey-haired jounin sensei could have gone. The Hokage probably knew where he was, but even if she knew, Tsunade wasn't telling them anything. He could be dead...

"Annoyed." Naruto was a little more concise than he usually was. "Tsunade-obaachan still doesn't have a single mission for me." There was a frown on his face, not unlike the one on Shikamaru's face when he was displeased with something. Sakura didn't want to think that Naruto might be hanging around the other teams lately–because the thought of all the members of Team Seven having abandoned her would be too painful–but the resemblance was there. "Not even a D-ranked mission! I swear, if she's holding out on me and giving those missions to some genin team or something, I'm going to hit her with my rasengan so hard that it's going to hurt until she's at least a hundred!" Which wouldn't really be that long from now.

Sakura couldn't help but stifle a laugh at the thought of Tsunade complaining about an injury by Naruto. That would certainly be something she would like to see, although she doubted that her sensei would fall for it. "Arigatou, Naruto," she said suddenly as she wiped tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes, startling Naruto with the sudden words.

The blond-haired shinobi stared at his companion in mild confusion for a moment before he spoke. "What for Sakura-chan?"

"For taking my mind off Sasuke...even if it wasn't for too long." She smiled a little sadly into her lap. "We should train together again," she turned to look at him, her eyes sparkling with mild sincerity, "like old times."

Naruto was silent for a moment. Was she trying to be nice? Did she pity him because he had no one now? "Yeah...maybe," Naruto said as he tried to think of what to say to that. It was a lie, and he knew that it was a lie. There was no way that he could ever bring himself to be around her again. _'Sakura-chan...she's a part of my past. There's no way that I can...'_

They were silent for a moment, each understanding something unsaid between them. The name 'Uchiha Sasuke' hung unsaid in the air, slowly solidifying the distance between them until they were both hyperventilating.

"I–I'm going to go now," Sakura said as she rose quickly from her seat, her drink half-unfinished. "I'll...see you around, Naruto." She vanished quickly into the crowds beyond the ramen stand.

Naruto frowned to himself. It was amazing that he should think of something to say now that she was gone. _'How is Sasuke?'_ The question remained embedded in his mind.

**I**t was funny when he thought about it. Sasuke really did think that he was going to find Naruto here. It was where he had found the blond shinobi many times before. The hill. He was disappointed when he found it vacant, and curiously, a little relieved as well. He couldn't imagine why he would be relieved, but he was.

Sasuke sank into the grass beneath him and looked up at the sky. From here, he was sure that Naruto must have seen the same sky. It filled him with a strange peace and an unfamiliar warmth in his chest. He could feel a liveliness fill his body. And for a moment, he couldn't imagine what could be making him feel this way.

But he wasn't stupid. His mind practically screamed it in harmony with the organ embedded in his chest. His heart only sighed at one name. Naruto.

'_Kuso...'_ Sasuke pulled his loose collar away from his neck with a hand. He felt restrained...constricted. His mind wouldn't get away from what had happened at Naruto's apartment a few days ago when Naruto had punched him in the face. He heard his heart beating in his mind as he remembered it. He had really thought that Naruto was going to kiss him...

"Sasuke-kun!" The distant voice of his girlfriend called from nearby, but he was sure that the grass was enough cover to hide him from her for now. "Sasuke-kun!"

He felt the urge to run away. He didn't want to see her now. He didn't want to see her at all unless it was absolutely necessary, but that wasn't possible anymore. Not since she became his self-proclaimed girlfriend. And not since Team Seven stopped meeting together for training missions, much less actual missions. But then, even if they met together for an actual mission, there was no way that they could be given a mission. Kakashi-sensei was still missing, and there wasn't a single new mission to be found on Tsunade's desk.

So, Sakura felt that they had to get together...just for the sake of being together.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura's face appeared upside down in his field of view, her pink hair flowing around her head. "Didn't you hear me? I was calling for you."

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before rising into a sit. "Hn." He looked away from her, expecting to see Naruto since the blond used to always hover around her, but then, there was really no reason for Naruto to be around her anymore. And he was disappointed.

'_Why am I disappointed! It's only Naruto... Naruto!'_ But, he already knew why he was so disappointed, and his mind was just irritating him now.

"Sasuke-k—"

"Sakura," Sasuke said quickly, interrupting her. "I don't think this is going to work."

The girl was dumbstruck. "Sasuke-kun, wh...what did you say?" She wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly. He couldn't be doing what she thought he was doing!

His coal-black eyes were cold and hard when they looked at her. "I don't want to be your boyfriend anymore," he said bluntly. "I never was."

Slowly, a crack formed on the surface of Sakura's heart. "You're...breaking up...with me?" Her voice came slowly as realization replaced the doubt in her mind. Only silence met her question as the fractures on Sakura's heart connected and small pieces fell to the ground at her feet in bell-like tinkles. Then larger chunks followed with less graceful crashes.

"Yes," Sasuke said slowly as he rose to his feet. There was pain on the girl's face, but strangely, he felt nothing. There was no guilt in his heart. He didn't say anything more to her as he turned away.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura reached out to grab his arm, but only grabbed air as her eyes blurred with tears. "At least tell me why..." Her heart lay in pieces at her feet, and no amount of time could bring all those pieces back together again. She grasped at them, trying to piece them back together, but they just kept slipping through her fingers... "Why did you... Why are you..."

"Naruto," Sasuke said simply as he continued farther away from her. "I'm in love with Naruto."

**End Chapter 3**

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Those of you who were reading intently may have noticed that backward was used for direction and thought that it should be backwards. If you thought that, consult your dictionary because backwards is an adjective relating to something that is lean back, like a backwards country or town. Backward without an 's' is used for direction.

More English unless you're tired of this and want to close the window:

Anyways is not a word and is a fabrication of pop culture. :( This might distress you so here's some good news. Anyway is a real word and is used in the same way that you might use 'anyways.' That means that we've been using the wrong word most of the time. We should be using 'anyway' instead of 'anyways'. How distressing...

Fire's babbling:

Fire: That's the end of Chapter 3. If you have any questions on any japanese words or terms in general used, send me a review, or an email and I'll set up a glossary of all the words I have used in the next chapter. Other than that, I'll just assume that everyone knows what I'm talking about.

Sasuke: Ahem!

Fire: (turns to Sasuke) Nani...?

Sasuke: (Glares at Fire)

Fire: Oh yeah...we've been meaning to tell everyone that there is a third genre for this story but since we could only choose two, I decided on romance and angst although it was originally romance and tragedy. So the third genre would be tragedy. Try not to hate me. There could never be a real happy ending when it's a love triangle. :(

Sasuke: (mumbles under breath) What triangle? I don't care about Sakura.

Fire: (shouts) Heartless freak! (smacks Sasuke in the head)

Naruto: (crying in the background) Sakura-chan...

**---------------------------**


	4. One Day

Fire: Yay! Feedback with a little buzz! (not that the other reviews aren't appreciated...I love reading them too!) Sorry if I sound a little crazy. I really want some constructive criticism...so I'll try my best not to abuse the use of Japanese terms, Dragon'sSword. All Japanese added have been done so consciously to enhance the story...so I really don't want it to get in the way.

Sasuke: (mumbles under his breath) ...really is crazy...

Fire: (smacks Sasuke in the head) It's all your idea anyway! You're the one who comes up with these terms!

Sasuke: (eyes go sharingan, trying to suppress rage) Who writes it down?

Fire: (ignoring Sasuke) Let's see what our co-writer has to say about this. (turns to Naruto) Naruto...?

Naruto: (scratching head) This is...E--ang--glleesh?

Fire: (turns quickly away from Naruto) Well...on with the story. And keep reviewing. Don't be afraid to flame me. Fire doesn't burn. Flames will just make Fire grow brighter...and I might just update it earlier if enough people review.

Sasuke: (still mumbling under his breath) Told you Fire's crazy...talking in the third person...

Fire: (Punches Sasuke hard in the face and yells) I _SAID_ 'on with the story!'

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Disclaimer: the phrase "My dobe" is copyrighted by Fire. All other previous disclaimers still stand. Kishimoto-sensei still owns Naruto...and all I have are Naruto stocks... :(

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**Chapter 4: One Day**

**H**is mind was in a daze, and when Sasuke came to, he found himself sitting in the dark in his kitchen. He didn't remember coming home after breaking up with Sakura, he was hungry, and he only had one thing on his mind. He needed to see Naruto. He needed to be with Naruto. He has been away from the blond for too long already. There was no way that he was going to spend another moment away from him.

The dark-haired boy pushed himself up from the low table and was out the door before he could even think to hesitate. But he was hesitating in his mind as he walked out the front door. The moon was a sliver in the sky, surrounded by its attendant stars. It was already far into the night, and he was sure that Naruto was going to be asleep.

For a moment, he thought about going back. He could wait until tomorrow, right? It has already been about two weeks since he saw Naruto last. But, his legs didn't listen to his brain. His legs were listening to the thing that was calling out to Naruto.

And that was how he found himself climbing into Naruto's room in the middle of the night. The blond shinobi was fast asleep in his bed, his pyjama shirt crumpled halfway up his chest and his nightcap askew on his head. Sasuke watched him as he slept, unable to look away, not daring to touch him for fear of waking the boy. He was strangely happy just standing there, watching him sleep. He didn't need anything else. He just sat down at the very edge of Naruto's mattress and watched him sleep, the entire time with weariness creeping upon him.

After a while, Sasuke shifted closer–away from the edge of Naruto's bed–bent over the boy's sleeping form with all the intention of kissing him...then straightened again. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He was afraid to do it. Instead, the dark-haired shinobi crawled atop the blankets–his weary limbs stiffening with every movement–and curled at Naruto's side. He stared intensely at the blond's peaceful face. It was a tight fit on the small twin-size bed, but it would only be for a little while. He'll leave...before Naruto wakes...

**T**he sun shone brightly through the open window, passed the curtains pulled to one side, and fell right across the face of a blond boy. He opened one eye slightly, looking out through that one slit before he noticed that he felt all cramped up. He tried to move, but realized that there was an unusual weight on his body.

'_Hmm...I swear I closed those curtains last night,'_ Naruto's mind said as he slowly adjusted his eyes to the sunlight. He moved his right arm down to push himself up, but it met air and he almost fell out of his bed, would have fallen out of his bed if it wasn't for the strange weight on his body. "Whoa!" He caught the side of the bed, his eyes growing wide. _'What's going on!'_

Then, he felt it. The unmistakable warmth of a nearby body, the steady rise and fall of another's breathing. Naruto turned to his left to see what it was when his face met a mass of pitch-black hair. The blond rolled the other body off him and inched away from the edge of his mattress to see who it was that had fallen into his bed.

And Naruto came face to face with Sasuke.

For a moment, Naruto was captivated by the sight of his best friend. The morning sunlight made his skin glow against the black hair spread out on Naruto's pillow. He looked so at peace that Naruto couldn't imagine that this boy could have the hurricane of raging hatred that Naruto knew Sasuke had for Itachi, his elder brother.

With his heart pounding in his ears, the blond stopped his head a finger's breadth from the other boy's face. He hadn't even realized that he was inching closer.

He licked his dry lips as he listened to Sasuke's calm breathing. He didn't even have to think about it. His lips pressed against the other boy lightly...on the nose.

Naruto didn't really intend to kiss him on the nose. It sort of just happened. He guessed that he shouldn't have closed his eyes...

But, it was enough to wake Sasuke from his sleep.

'_Kuso, my face is burning up!' _Naruto panicked slightly.

There was slight confusion on Sasuke's face at first as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes; then, he saw Naruto hovering over him, and he sat up. "N–Naruto!" He said, panic seeping into his heart. "Wh...I can explain!" Then, a very faint pinkish tint spread into his cheeks as his nose told of a remnant of a kiss.

The thought that the blond might have no reservations toward finding the dark-haired boy so suddenly in his bed had crossed over Sasuke's mind, but one look at Naruto's face told him otherwise. There was some curiosity as to why Sasuke was sleeping in his bed, although there was more embarrassment there...for...what?

"I..." He couldn't bring himself to say it, his explanation... "I...like you." He was staring down at his hands. He just couldn't bring himself to look the blond in the eyes. "I like you a lot." He felt his face burning. But it was still a lot better than telling him that he was stalking him and sleeping in his bed at night when he wasn't watching...

Naruto pulled himself out of bed and grabbed his clothes quickly from his dresser drawers. Those words came out of nowhere. Naruto didn't know how to react. He was sure that Sasuke had only said it out of politeness for Naruto. It was obvious that he was embarrassed about what he had just done.

'_And that was supposed to explain what Sasuke was doing in my bed!'_

"I...I don't know Sasuke. I..." He thought about what he did just a moment ago, his face brightening even more before he shook his head free of that thought. "...I don't think of you that way." He shook off the remark. He didn't want Sasuke to have to hold himself to a sentence that he said when he was half-asleep and probably dreaming of Sakura.

_**And the brat's back in denial!**_

'_Urusai, damn Kyuubi!'_

"Just, give me a chance!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto in a very un-Sasuke-like manner. "Naruto..." He clutched the blankets with his hands, his knuckles shrieking white in their desire to push his fingernails through his palms, and if it wasn't for those blankets, they might have succeeded. "Just, give me one chance..." The boy was awake. He wasn't just talking in his sleep.

**_Yeah, listen to him, Kit. He knows what he's talking about, _**the Kyuubi said with a wink.

Naruto ignored the demon fox, but when he thought it over in his own mind, he came to the same conclusion. He really wanted to be with Sasuke.

"Okay..." he said slowly as he looked away from Sasuke. The light that shone through the open window behind the dark-haired shinobi gave his skin an ethereal glow. Sasuke shone like an angel in the morning light, and Naruto felt his heart racing in his chest as he turned away, his own face flushing a similar red that was on Sasuke's face now. "Demo...this doesn't mean anything, okay?" And he walked out of the room.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki had gone to shower and change out of his pyjamas into his everyday clothes, and when he came out of the bathroom, a towel mopping up the stray water left in his hair, he smelled the unmistakable smell of cooking. The blond chuunin walked out of the bathroom and made his way through the already piling clothing and garbage left on the floor. And Sasuke had only cleaned all of it a few days ago too...

"Sasuke?" He said as he dried his hair with a towel. "I didn't know you could cook."

"Well..." the dark-haired boy said as he moved easily around the kitchen. "I don't eat ramen like you." He had to stay healthy. He had to grow stronger in order to defeat Itachi.

Naruto glared at the dark-haired shinobi from the door. "What's wrong with ramen?" His voice was filled with cautious venom.

"Nothing," Sasuke said as he tossed the contents of a frying pan with one hand, his other hand occupied with a pair of chopsticks. "It's just not very healthy." He placed several plates of food on the table in front of two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks. "I made rice."

"Yeah, I can see that," Naruto said as he sat down. He wasn't going to turn down a free meal if he could get away with it. "I just didn't know I had rice."

Sasuke stared at Naruto as he sat down. "But, there was a bag of rice right in the bottom cupboard," Sasuke said as he handed a note to Naruto. "Iruka-sensei had dropped it off a few months ago."

Naruto looked down at the note, and sure enough, there was a date written on it, and Iruka-sensei's signature. "O-kay..." he said slowly again.

'_Try to eat a balanced meal at least once a day... You might defeat Sasuke someday if you do... Dated April...'_ ...as if the rice might go bad before Naruto even realized that it was there...

Naruto crumpled the note in his hand. Iruka-sensei really liked to annoy him. He could beat up Sasuke right now if he wanted to!

"Now, eat before the food gets cold."

Sasuke's words brought Naruto back to reality, and the shinobi looked at the food warily. He wasn't too confident of the other boy's cooking. In all their time together on missions, Sakura had always cooked. But...it didn't looked poisonous...not that it meant that it wasn't poison...

"Itadakimasu..."

Naruto took a cautious bite.

"It's good!" Naruto said with mild surprise tinged in his happy voice. He smiled wide and bright at Sasuke before continuing with his breakfast. It wasn't ramen, but he could go to Ichiraku's later. At the moment, he would indulge Sasuke and eat his food.

**S**asuke was trying very hard to keep a smile down as he watched Naruto eat his food with all the zeal that he had when he ate ramen. He had half-expected the blond to put up a fight, but to his relief, he didn't, and when Naruto said that his cooking was good, he had felt such elation that he wanted to kiss the blond there...but, he didn't. He was apprehensive...afraid. He didn't want to scare the blond away after convincing him to give him a chance.

"Well...I'm leaving," Naruto said suddenly as he placed his empty bowl and chopsticks down. Sasuke was staring at Naruto too hard to realize that the boy had actually already eaten about twelve bowls of rice and most of the food.

"N–Nani?" Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You said that I'd..." Actually, he wasn't sure what Naruto had said, but he wasn't just going to let the blond go so easily.

"I'll be right back," Naruto said a little too casually as he rose from his seat. "And I'll do the dishes, okay?" He was feeling a little bad about leaving Sasuke already. He wanted to know why the other boy was sleeping in his bed, and how he got there. And what did he mean by 'give him a chance?' Naruto had said he will, but he couldn't just outright refuse anything that Sasuke said without even knowing what it was that he was refusing. The dark-haired shinobi was his best friend. He trusted him completely. "Just...stay right here."

With that said, Naruto blew out of the kitchen, through the living room and out the front door, his blazing orange jacket in one hand and his hitai-ate in the other. And Sasuke was left in the kitchen all alone.

The Uchiha finished his meal slowly before placing the dishes neatly in the sink, careful to fill them with water so that they could soak and would be easier for the blond to wash later. Naruto hardly ate anything other than his cup ramen–Sasuke knew because that was all he had found in the kitchen when he woke up, other than the rice and the meat that was in the fridge from that day in the market–so, Sasuke was sure that the blond wasn't used to washing dishes. Stuck-on foods would probably give him a migraine.

And it wasn't as if Sasuke had nothing to do. Inside, he really wanted to train, to grow stronger so that he could defeat his brother–that thought was back now that he didn't have to worry about Naruto anymore–but Naruto had said to stay in the apartment, that he'll be right back, so Sasuke decided to do the next best thing.

Okay...it wasn't really the next best thing, but the apartment was already a mess and Sasuke just couldn't feel his chi in the air with the clutter clogging it. He wondered how the other shinobi could even mould his chakra enough in here enough to perform even a simple hand seal much less an entire jutsu.

Sasuke sighed as he went to work. Even with Kage Bunshin–which he couldn't do–he would still have to work extra hard just to clean this place, and keep it clean.

**A** ledger flew through the air toward Naruto as the blond backed out of the Hokage's office. Due to sheer luck, the jinchuuriki managed to dodge the high-speed attack. The book lodged itself in the wall as easily as a shuriken, even with its dull edges. Several of the Hokage's secretaries along with Shizune proceeded to attempt extracting the important book of financial accounts.

"I said that we have no missions, and we're not going to have any missions for a little longer, Naruto!" Tsunade's voice was filled with fury as she shouted. "I said that I'll send for you even if we only get a 'measly' D-ranked mission, so stop coming back here!" A throbbing vein was visibly prying itself from her forehead.

"Tsu...Tsunade-sama!" Shizune rushed over to the blond woman as she lifted the desk over her head to make her point.

"W–well...I'll s–see you tomorrow," Naruto said shakily as he rushed out of there. He never thought that he could actually make Tsunade-obaachan that angry, but he guessed that he could annoy anyone if he was pestering them nonstop for over two months. He just wished that Kakashi-sensei was here. He was sure that the grey-haired jounin would have something for them to do, perhaps a minor mission that Tsunade had tucked away somewhere for a rainy day...

The blond sighed as he opened the door of his apartment. It was another uneventful day, and all he wanted to do was make some ramen and sleep for a little while. Even the idea of training today was unappealing. All his energy had been used up trying to avoid Tsunade's attacks. The woman had smashed several holes in her walls and floor, broken a few bookcases and even a few books in her attempt to send Naruto from her office. He had used a lot of chakra speeding up his legs in order to avoid instant death. He thought that he was going to collapse.

"Wha...Sasuke!" He looked around his apartment. Everything–all the garbage and all the clothes that he had left on the floor this morning–was gone. Again. "What did you do!" Although it was obvious what he did...

"I cleaned. What does it look like I did?" There was a mop in Sasuke's hands. "The place was a dump. And I had nothing to do."

'_But, he only had one morning! How did he find the time to clean everything in only one morning!'_

"Watch T.V. like a normal person," Naruto said as he grabbed the mop from the dark-haired nin's hands. He didn't even know that he had a mop.

"Not when I couldn't even see where the couch was," Sasuke retorted, smirking at his own cleverness.

"It's right there!" Naruto shouted with a low growl.

Turning to the kitchen, Sasuke cleared his ear at the shout. _'Is he loud like this all the time?'_ "The dishes are in the sink," he said as he set down a whetstone to sharpen his kunai and shuriken.

"Yeah, I never said I wasn't going to wash them," Naruto said as he walked to the sink, taking off his jacket now that he was inside. He turned on the water to fill the sink...and as he watched the water rise over the dishes, filling the tub with suds, his memory returned to the events of that morning...and the questions that were brewing in his mind then. "Sasuke..." he said slowly as he watched the bubbles rise in the sink. "What were you saying this morning? About giving you a chance?"

Sasuke's hands stopped as Naruto asked him the question. Naruto...had no idea what he was talking about? "You didn't hear me this morning?" Sasuke's voice was almost shaking with disbelief. He had thought that he was pretty blunt in what he had said. "I said that I like you. I want you to give me a chance...to be with you." That was the longest sentence he had ever had to say, and the hardest one he had ever had to say as well.

Naruto almost laughed at that. "Of course you like me, Sasuke. I'm your friend," Naruto said as he scrubbed the bowl in his hand with the sponge. "You're with me all the time!" _'A chance... Did he mean...about the Orochimaru thing?' _"And I completely forgive you for the thing with Orochi–"

"That's not what I mean...urusatonkatchi," Sasuke said as he encircled Naruto lightly with one arm, the other one sliding down the hand that was holding the bowl, his fingers barely touching Naruto's bare skin. "You missed a spot. It's still dirty," the dark-haired boy whispered in his ear as he rested his chin lightly on Naruto's shoulder.

With Sasuke's warm presence behind him, Naruto felt his face burning, heard his heart pounding in his ears, but dismissed it, sending it away from his mind. He didn't even like Sasuke that way! He couldn't allow it. "Sa...Sakura-chan," Naruto said shakily as he felt Sasuke nuzzle his neck. "She's your–"

"Ex-girlfriend," Sasuke said as he fell backwards at Naruto's sudden push.

"I'm washing the dishes, Sasuke," Naruto said, his face bright red as he buried his concentration in the sink. That was...uncomfortable. "You should sharpen your kunai in the living room."

Sasuke frowned a little as he blew his long black bangs out of his face. "Fine," he said after a short pause. He picked up the whetstone and left the kitchen.

Naruto sighed in relief as he sank his hands into the soapy water once more. It should be easier to wash the dishes without Sasuke here. But, he _was _right about one thing...he had missed a spot.

_**And you're in denial.**_

'_Urusai!'_

**A**s stealthily as he could, Naruto looked around the corner of the wall into the living room, but Sasuke wasn't doing anything unusual. He had thought that the dark-haired boy would be doing something strange. He didn't know what kind of strange thing he would be doing–hanging upside from the ceiling like a bat, or drinking blood, or something like that (probably something else that a vampire would do)–but he had expected Sasuke to be doing it. However, Sasuke was just sitting on the couch like a normal person, reading one of Naruto's scrolls–although, he was sitting with his back against an armrest and his legs resting on the other seats.

The blond sighed as he walked out of the kitchen, grabbed a scroll that he was currently reading, and sat down at the other–very far–end of the couch, but like a real normal person, with his legs dangling over the edge and his back against the seat, like he was supposed to sit considering how there wasn't any room on the couch for him to sit any differently, and it was already cramped enough as it was. The water in the sink had stopped running a little while ago, so he knew that the dark-haired shinobi knew that he wasn't washing the dishes anymore. Staying in the kitchen any longer would only cause trouble.

Sasuke gave the blond a fleeting glance before looking back at the scroll in his hand. It was a very interesting one. He didn't know that the young chuunin had scrolls on jutsu like this. These were pretty advanced. He wanted to know if Naruto had borrowed them from Tsunade or something along that line, or perhaps he had developed these jutsu on his own...but, his mouth was dry, and he couldn't bring himself to ask him the question. So, time passed in silence as they both sat in the waning light of day, reading their respective scrolls.

"Sasuke?" Naruto said after a short while.

Sasuke looked up from his reading. "Hmm?"

"What are you reading?"

Sasuke had to look down at the scroll to see exactly what he was reading. He wasn't really paying too much attention. Naruto was pretty distracting. "A few jutsu," he said slowly as he tried to make out what it was saying exactly.

"Oh..." Naruto said, his face a little pink as he inched a little closer. "Can I read it too?" He was bored, and he had thought that it would be rude if he switched the T.V. on, and...he had wanted to be near Sasuke, not that he was admitting it.

Sasuke blinked a couple of times before reaching forward and pulling Naruto into his arms with a playful smile. It was as if he had read Naruto's mind...although Naruto didn't look too happy about it.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in surprise. His face flushed as it met Sasuke's sturdy chest. He could hear his heart racing again.

"You want to read it, right?" Sasuke said as he allowed the blond to push himself slightly up from where he had fallen, right on top of him. Sasuke's free hand was curled over the boy's shoulders, over the boy's back. "I never said that I'd give the scroll to you." He could almost hear Naruto's heartbeat.

With his hands flat against Sasuke's chest, Naruto pushed himself around right away to look at the scroll in the other boy's hands. He didn't want Sasuke to see his reaction. It was embarrassing, but it wasn't so bad sitting with Sasuke's arms to either side of him, holding the scroll; however Sasuke did read faster than him, and he was sure that his hair was blocking Sasuke's view of the words.

Not to mention that the blond wasn't too comfortable either... Before even a moment was through, Naruto had made up his mind. "I'm going to sleep," he said as he pushed Sasuke's arms away and stepped carefully over the other boy's legs. "I can't sit here and read like this." And he was afraid that Sasuke might hear his erratic heart. They were sitting too close for comfort.

"Fine," Sasuke–who had practically buried his face in the Naruto's hair a moment ago–said as he rolled the scroll closed. "I'm taking a shower."

The blond blinked. "Nani!"

"You're not expecting me to go to sleep without taking a shower first..." he said, his dark eyes cutting through the blond with their strange rationality.

"Y–you're staying here! I'm not running a hotel, Sasuke-teme!" At least hotels get paid!

The dark-haired chuunin frowned at Naruto. "Sakura..." he said simply. There was no need to say anything more. The girl was searching for him, and they both knew it. She would want more information about what had happened between Sasuke and her–and probably between them and Naruto as well–and she wouldn't rest until she was satisfied.

Naruto sighed. "Fine," he said as he turned away. "Stay." He walked into his room to grab his clothes. "But be quick. I want to sleep now." And like Sasuke said, he couldn't sleep without a shower...a very cold shower.

**N**aruto wasn't too happy when he woke in the morning. He was still tired. He didn't get a very good night's sleep. And it wasn't a wonder why. Sasuke rolled around so much. The blond never knew that his friend could move around so much, and they had slept in the same room on missions before. Although never in the same bed...

'_Arrgh! Why don't I have extra futons like a normal person!'_ But it wasn't as if Naruto has ever had company at his apartment before. Everyone had hated him before...

The blond chuunin groaned as he ran his hand through his gold locks and looked down at Sasuke. Then, he rubbed his face vigorously with his hands. He couldn't believe what he had said to Sasuke the night before! This was going to bother him for a long, long time to come.

'_My dobe...' The dark-haired boy grabbed hold of Naruto by the waist, his weary head already half-asleep as he laid it down at Naruto's side. 'I love you...' Sasuke said it just as he fell asleep. It came completely out of the blue._

_Naruto's heart raced at the words. He didn't know what to do...what to say... Sasuke had just said that he loved him! '...' But as he looked at the dark-haired chuunin, there was only one thing he could think of to say. 'I love you too...Sasuke...' But of course, the Uchiha was asleep._

Naruto stifled a groan as he pulled at his hair. What was I supposed to say to that! _'No, Sasuke. I only think of you as a friend, a very good friend, but still a friend. Arrgh! I couldn't say that!'_

**_Then why did you say it to him? _**The Kyuubi's voice was almost amused.

'_Arrgh!'_ He couldn't believe that the Kyuubi would want to annoy him so early in the morning! Foxes were supposed to be nocturnal!

Naruto pulled himself out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. Ramen. He needed Ramen. He needed Ramen to get his mind off all of this.

"Ohayo!" The word came as soon as he walked into the kitchen.

Naruto looked up quickly as he heard the greeting. He knew that voice.

The blond's eyes grew wide as he saw the grey-haired nin. "Kakashi-sensei!" Then, he quickly clamped his hand over his mouth. He didn't want to wake Sasuke. "What are you doing here?" he whispered.

The jounin's only eye not covered by his hitai-ate curved into a smile. "I wanted to see how you were doing while I was away...not slacking off, I hope?"

Naruto's face flushed a little pink at the comment. He was slacking off a little... "Hey, where were you!" He demanded as he turned to his sensei once more. The grey-haired man wasn't one to ask questions. Naruto wasn't the one who went missing for almost three months! "What were you doing!" Something perverted...he just knew it...!

The jounin held up his hands to stop the boy. "Hey, hey, I'm not here for an interrogation," he said as he jumped off his perch on the windowsill. "I'm just here for a visit."

Naruto looked at his sensei through narrowed eyes. "You're hiding something, Kakashi-sensei, otherwise you wouldn't avoid the question like that."

Kakashi looked down at his student for a moment before his mouth curved into a smile that was visible even under the mask that covered half his face. "Okay," he said as he ruffled the blond head in front of him. "But, don't tell Sasuke. I was tracking the whereabouts of Akatsuki. I've found Itachi."

The proud expression on the jounin's face fell and froze as he looked down at his student once more. He hadn't gotten the reaction that he had hoped to get from Naruto. He had expected congratulations or something like that. It wasn't easy to track down Akatsuki. Instead, the blond had frozen in his tracks, but that wasn't all... He seemed to be looking–Kakashi turned around slowly to see–right behind him.

"Naruto...what are you looking..." and Kakashi saw Sasuke standing there with wide eyes, "...at?"

Sasuke had heard everything.

**End Chapter 4**

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Fire's English Tidbits for those who care:

Everyone who was annoyed by the use of mould in "moulding chakra" and thought that it should be mold...you guessed it... It's another Britian (and all former colonies like Canada and Australia)/United States rule. They both mean the exact same thing but mould is British and mold isn't. A simple rule is that Britain tends to spell words with 'ou' and the United States takes out the 'u.' So 'colour' is British...and 'color' is American. Another simple rule is that certain British words with double 'l' will have a singular 'l' in American. So...'counsellor' is British, and 'counselor' is American. Traveller, and traveler.

More English unless you want to close the window:

Through, thorough and thought. If you're confused, continue reading. Through means to pass from one side of something to the other side, whether that is physically true--like passing through a tunnel--or metaphorically true--as in going through hard times. Thorough is complete. Thoroughly would be completely. Thought is the pass tense of think...although I doubt anyone would actually get it mixed up with the other two, I'm just going to throw it in here.

English...getting bored of it yet:

The pass tense of 'will' is 'would' and the pass tense of 'can' is 'could.' Just something I thought I'd bring up. I'm not sure if anyone has ever thought of this...but I think it's interesting.

Fire's babbling:

Fire: Gomen...for the English. I tend to think a lot about these things...just weird things that pop into my head and since there was a teacher's strike recently here, I haven't been able to talk to any English teachers about it...so it's building up.

Sasuke: (mumbling under his breath) What kind of an insane person thinks about English grammar?

Fire: (smacks Sasuke in the head) What kind of an insane person thinks about his brother all the time!

Naruto: (reading over the chapter again) I don't have curtains... (looks at his window and is completely surprised) I...have curtains?

Fire: You put them up recently so that you could mope around in the dark...over Sasuke.

Sasuke: (turning to Naruto) You need a life...

Naruto: (shouting) Teme! Who's the one who keeps running into my apartment! Stalker! HENTAI!

Sasuke: (turns around and walks away) Just when things were getting good...Kakashi-sensei has to interrupt us...

Naruto: HEY! SASUKE! (runs after Sasuke)

Fire: Kakashi's back! Yay! Read the next chapter to find out how everyone's going to react to that... Will Sasuke go after Itachi, or will he stay in Konoha with Naruto?

Kakashi: Sort of a stupid question, isn't it?

Fire: (supressing anger) Just keep up the suspense, Kakashi... (turning to the audience again) The longest chapter in this story is over... See you in the next chapter. Ja!

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	5. Wait for Me

Fire: Good to see everyone again. The last chapter was the hardest one to write. I'm still not satisfied with it, so I might edit it again later and put up a second version that I'm happier with. It's supposed to portray a kind of marital atmosphere between the two boys...but I don't think that it's done right at the moment.

Sasuke: Phhf...marital! Like I'd like to marry the dobe!

Fire: You might...

Naruto: (blushing furiously) Nani!

Sasuke: (ignoring Naruto and glaring at Fire) Don't you have something else you want to talk about?

Fire: Oh, yes! I'm also here to address some concerns sent in by our readers.

Sasuke: (narrows eyes at Fire skeptically) What concerns? I didn't read anything about concerns.

Fire: (ignoring Sasuke) If you're reading a "Fire Project," it has nothing to do with whether it is a story involving the people of Konoha or not. It just means that it's written by Fire, not Sand. Yes, we are two people who share the same account. Address me as Fire unless you are talking to us both, then you can call us Fire and Sand.

Sasuke: I thought I was sharing this account with you.

Fire: You're my co-writer. You count as a part of Fire.

Sasuke: (mumbling under his breath) That's stupid.

Fire: Another concern might be that you think that Naruto is portrayed in a bad way...that he's acting stupid, or what he said the chapter before was stupid...or something like that. In response to that, I'm just writing him as I see him. He might be jutsu crazy and a genius at using and learning jutsu, but he's mostly just street smart. When it comes to books and book-learning, it's best to leave that to Sakura.

Naruto: (yelling) Hey! I'm smarter than that!

Fire: Do you even remember what chakra is?

Naruto: ...

Fire: And Kakashi isn't getting old. He didn't sense Sasuke's presence in Naruto's apartment because Sasuke was suppressing his chakra signature. Remember that shinobi are supposed to be experts at stealth and at hiding their presence. Sasuke wouldn't have been much of a shinobi if he couldn't even do that one basic thing. If you don't remember this, refer to book one, page 130 of the Naruto manga, or to episode four of the Naruto anime. A shinobi can only hide his chakra signature, not his killer intent. If you were mistaking the two, that's why Kakashi sensed Gaara behind that rock during his training with Sasuke in the one month interval between the prelims and tournament of the chuunin exams (manga doesn't have it, but it's in episode seventy-four). Kakashi had sensed his killer intent, not his chakra signature. (mumbling to self) I never thought I'd have to explain that.

Sasuke: Not much of a shinobi! I'm the perfect shinobi!

Kakashi: I'm getting old...?

Naruto: Who cares about chakra! I can still perform cooler jutsu than you!

Fire: (trying to ignore the weird crowd) Keep reviewing. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Flame me if you dare! Bwahhahahaha!

Sasuke: (mumbling under his breath) Great... Now Fire's gone crazy.

Fire: Ahem! And I'm always taking requests if you have anything you want me to write. I know that this one is a little dark, but I can write anything. Just send any suggestions on what you w--

Sasuke: (cutting Fire off) On with the story!

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Disclaimer: The phrases "jutsu crazy" and "my dobe" belong to Fire. All other disclaimers still apply. I'm still trying to own Naruto one stock at a time, although ultimately, it still belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.

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**Chapter 5: Wait for Me**

**N**aruto's eyes widened as his heart dropped through the floor of his apartment. He couldn't believe it. He shouldn't have asked Kakashi about it. He shouldn't have forced his sensei to tell him what he has been doing. "Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, ignoring the wrenching pain in his chest as he ran after the dark-haired shinobi. Sasuke had run back into Naruto's room after hearing the news. Kakashi had found Itachi.

Kakashi watched as the blond chuunin ran after the raven-haired boy. The grey-haired jounin turned to the exit as understanding crept into his mind. The boys should be alone. He would much rather leave this delicate situation for the Hokage to handle. Sasuke would probably go to her later for the location of his brother...hopefully this and not directly to him for that information.

He didn't really know what Sasuke might do, but he did know one thing; this was something that he would be better off not seeing. So, he jumped out the window before Naruto could come back. He still needed to see how Sakura was doing.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as he ran into his room, but Sasuke wasn't there, and his clothes were gone. The pyjamas that he had borrowed from Naruto to sleep in was lying neatly folded on his bed. "Sasuke!" He shouted the dark-haired boy's name again, but he knew that Sasuke was already gone. The Uchiha couldn't hear him. "Chikusho!"

**_Should have known, huh Kit? He does wake up before you, _**the Kyuubi laughed.

'_Urusai, baka kitsune!'_ Naruto shouted at the Kyuubi. _'I don't need you to laugh at me right now!'_

**_He has probably gone home to pack, _**the Kyuubi said cleverly. **_You should go before he heads for the gates, _**which was a little farfetched considering how Sasuke didn't even know where Itachi was at the moment. There was no reason for him to go to the gates yet. **_Well...what are you doing, still standing around here!_**

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and ran out the door as soon as he threw his clothes on. The Kyuubi was right about Sasuke needing to pack, even if he was wrong about him heading for the gates. The Kyuubi was being sarcastic of course, but Naruto was a little too nerve wracked to figure that out. _'He doesn't even know where Itachi is yet,'_ Naruto repeated in his mind. Sasuke still had to stop by Kakashi-sensei's apartment at the very least...if not the Hokage tower.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called out for the Uchiha. "Sasuke! Damn this huge house," he muttered under his breath. "Sasuke!" He wandered through the house that he knew belonged to Sasuke. He had come in here before, without Sasuke's knowing. Did he really think that the gates around these buildings could actually keep out a shinobi? At least a few kuniochi fangirls must have been able to penetrate this perimeter more than once–even with the traps that Sasuke had set up to stop them. They weren't lethal traps. "Sasuke!" Not that he was a fangirl...

Naruto found him in a simple room, bare of everything but the most elementary, necessary furniture: a bed, a single lamp on a bedside table by the bed, a squat bookshelf lined against the entire far wall beneath a window, books that filled every available space on that bookshelf, a small television set which sat on top of the bookshelf, thin curtains that allowed the morning light to stream into the room, tatami mats that covered the floor. The closet was set into the wall so there was no need for a real one.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, his back turned to him as he folded a single set of clothes neatly before placing them in his pack. His voice didn't sound angry, or annoyed that Naruto was in his house. In fact, it was a little happy, although it was filled with a sad pain. However, it didn't come as a surprise. Naruto already knew what he was sad about.

"Y–" Naruto was silent for a moment as he thought about this. He wasn't sure if he wanted to say it out loud. The thought that the dark-haired chuunin might go on a mission without him–even if it was a self-appointed mission–was difficult. They always went on missions together. They were supposed to be partners. They were supposed to be a team. "I want to come." And if Sakura knew about this, she would want to go too.

Sasuke zipped his black backpack closed before flinging it onto his back and turning to look at Naruto. "No," he said simply, then added, "you're not coming," just in case the thought couldn't penetrate the dobe's thick skull, "dobe."

"Don't call me dobe, teme!" Naruto shouted in momentary familiarity before his face fell again. "I'm serious."

'_And I'm not!'_

Sasuke frowned at him before pushing pass him. He wasn't going to argue with the dobe. If he said that Naruto wasn't coming, then he wasn't coming. There was no discussing it.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, half-whining as he ran after Sasuke. "Sasuke, did you hear me!"

'_Of course I heard you! You're so loud that everyone in the heart of Konoha can hear you!'_

"Sasuke!"

"You're not coming."

"But why?"

"..."

"Sasuke!"

"..."

Sasuke had walked all the way to the Hokage tower. He had entertained the thought of going to Kakashi, but he had thought twice about it and decided that it was best if he got the information directly from Tsunade. That would make it official, and at least she could tell Naruto that he couldn't come with him.

There was no way that Sasuke could take Naruto with him.

It wasn't that it was dangerous–they had been on many dangerous missions before–but it was because Sasuke didn't want Naruto to see him like that... He didn't want the blond to see him kill someone like that... He didn't want Naruto to see the avenger that lived within his body. He didn't want Naruto to see that he was capable of killing someone...with the intention of killing someone. Actually wanting to kill someone...

Even when Sasuke was fighting Naruto in the Valley of the End, he didn't really intend on killing Naruto...just hurting him a little...okay, a lot...otherwise Naruto would be dead by now.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune called out to the blond woman who was sleeping at her desk again. "Tsunade-sama!"

"Mmm...Shizune, just a few more moments..." Tsunade muttered even as Tonton, her pig complained to her. "Huh...Tonton?" Tsunade perked up a little.

"You have a visitor, Tsunade-sama," the brown-haired girl said as she stepped aside, deeming Tsunade awake enough to receive visitors. "The young Uchiha..."

At the name 'Uchiha' Tsunade was fully awake. She had expected this since Kakashi returned this morning. When it was something about Itachi and Akatsuki, there was no way that she could keep it a secret from the young Uchiha for long. It was all just a matter of time. She just didn't expect to see him so soon.

But then, Kakashi did say that Sasuke was going to drop by tomorrow if not later today. He knew...

'_Damn, why didn't I believe him?'_ Tsunade scolded herself as she wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. She wasn't really in any condition to see anyone at the moment. She has been so overworked with reports on Akatsuki and the activities of Orochimaru–not to mention all the activities of the new genin, the progress of everyone in the Academy and still trying to find a mission for Naruto to do–these past weeks that she wouldn't really be in any condition to see anyone for a while.

"Hokage-sama," Sasuke said as he walked into the room with Naruto on his heels.

"Uchiha Sasuke-kun," Tsunade said with a very well composed smile. "What brings you here so early in the morning?" Even though she already knew what it was, there was no way that she was going to tell him why he should be here. He could be here for something else for all she knew. But she was wrong...

"I request permission to leave the village..."

Tsunade blinked at the dark-haired boy before turning to look at Naruto. Did he know about this? She was about to ask when she saw the look on the blond jinchuuriki's face. Of course he knew...and undoubtedly, Sasuke refused to allow Naruto to go with him. Smart. She would never have allowed Naruto to go; the blond would probably get himself killed. On the other hand–she turned back to look at Sasuke–even if she refused to allow Sasuke to go, he would still leave. Even if he were to become a nukenin, he would find the information, Itachi's location, somehow and go after Itachi...

"...alone." Sasuke finished, looking straight at Tsunade with unwavering determination.

"No! Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, desperation weighing heavily in his chest.

"Naruto!" Tsunade snapped, stopping the boy effectively before he could say anything further. "You..." Her voice cracked. She cleared it. "You want to go alone?"

Sasuke looked at the Hokage. She had heard what he had said. He wasn't going to repeat himself.

"Yes...of course..." the woman said as she pulled out an empty mission form. She had half-expected him to request at least one team of ANBU to go with him...but she knew that it wasn't going to happen. Sasuke wasn't that kind of person. "Go...I'll tell Shizune to get you what you want."

For a moment, as her hand wavered over the mission form, she thought about assigning him an escort, someone strong and who could handle the difficulties of going up against Akatsuki, but she knew that Sasuke wouldn't accept that either. He was too...stubborn for that. If he said that he wanted to do this alone, then he wanted to do this alone. If she had assigned him a partner, he would probably have left him right at the beginning of the journey and continued on alone...like he wanted. Then, Tsunade would just have a very nerve wracked shinobi on her hands.

"And take this with you," the Hokage said as she began writing the necessary information on the form, "when I finish."

"Tsunade-obaachan!" Naruto whined, right on schedule. "You can't just let him go alone!" Although the reason for his whining has changed somewhat. She would have expected her apprentice, Sakura, to say something like that, not Naruto.

"Yes...I can," Tsunade said slowly, giving Naruto her most intimidating look.

But, the blond chuunin just shrugged it off. He was used to Tsunade's looks. "He'll get himself killed!"

"If he deems himself ready to fight Itachi, nothing and _no one_," she hoped that he understood that connotation, "will be able to stop him."

Naruto opened his mouth to complain to the Hokage, but closed it again. He has known Sasuke since the day they became genin together. He had known _of_ him before, but he had never really known him. It was only afterwards... He knew that Tsunade was right. Sasuke would never allow anyone to go with him...not even if the person who wanted to go with him was Tsunade, the Hokage. And Naruto wasn't even nearly as powerful yet. He would never stand a chance of changing Sasuke's mind.

Naruto turned around and walked away without another word. Both Sasuke and Tsunade had to stare at his retreating back. That was the first time that they had seen the blond silent. It was...eerie.

Sasuke turned and walked away as Tsunade handed him the mission form. It granted him permission to leave the village, and access to the information that he wanted. Itachi's location...

**N**aruto sat in his usual seat at Ichiraku ramen, a big bowl of ramen in front of him, but somehow, he just wasn't hungry.

His stomach growled.

Okay, he was hungry...but he just didn't have the appetite. Thoughts of Sasuke clouded his mind, taking even the place of ramen...even if that seemed impossible.

"What's the matter, kid?" Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku ramen, asked from behind his counter. "You haven't touched your ramen yet." And he could see that Naruto wanted to eat it too. His chopsticks were in his hands, already snapped and hovering over the bowl.

Naruto dipped his chopsticks into the bowl slowly, as if he was unsure of whether or not he was hungry...which he was. "Sasuke's leaving," he said solemnly as he slurped a mournful mouthful of noodles.

"And that bothers you?" Ayame the ramen girl asked the boy, who had come to the ramen stand so many times before. It was almost like she had a little brother; he was here so much!

"He wants to go alone," Naruto said as he took another, second slow mouthful of noodles. "He won't let me go with him."

The ramen girl smile reassuringly at the blond boy. "I'm sure he'll be okay. He's a powerful shinobi."

Naruto sighed as he looked down at the bowl of soup. "I guess..." He lifted the bowl to drink the soup silently. There was hardly any enjoyment in his actions today. He looked up again at the old man and the ramen girl, his eyes empty of all light. "Arigatou...for your help." There was resolve in his eyes, and as the blond shinobi left the ramen stand that day, the staff of Ichiraku were left wondering what the boy had decided to do.

**F**or a long time, Naruto had waited at the side of the main gates for Sasuke. He was sure that Sasuke would come...especially if he was going to leave the village. He had to come this way. Hours, then days passed, and still Naruto waited there, waiting for Sasuke to finish his preparations with the Hokage, or just general preparations altogether. People passed him, giving him strange looks as they tried to hide their looks of scorn. But, the blond jinchuuriki didn't think too much of it. They were no different from the other looks that they had given to him all his life. No matter what, he couldn't leave his spot at the side of the gates. If he did, he might miss Sasuke...

"What are you doing here, dobe?"

The blond looked up from where he sat, his knees tucked against his chest as he stared at the ground. He was so sure that Sasuke would speak to him, would call out to him before he left. "Sasuke!" And he did.

The blond chuunin's face lit up as he saw Sasuke, then quickly fell again as he remembered why they were both here. Naruto's eyes fell to the ground again, fearful of what Sasuke would say if he knew why he was really here.

But, Sasuke suspected already. He could see the dark green backpack lying next to Naruto. "Stand up, Naruto," he said with a slight, almost unnoticeable sigh. The blond did as he was told, swinging the backpack over one shoulder as he continued to avoid the dark-haired nin's gaze. "Look at me."

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, his faded blue eyes looking into intensely dark ones. Sasuke knew... The Uchiha knew why he was here! "Sasuke...I–"

The shorter chuunin's blue eyes widened in surprise as the dark-haired nin caught him suddenly in his arms; his face pressed lightly against the face in front of him. Naruto could feel his cheeks burning, his heart pounding as he felt the eyes of passersby watching them, as he felt the soft caress of the other boy's mouth on his own...the warm meander of his tongue against his lips...

He pushed Sasuke away, his lips tingling from the other boy's kiss. Naruto looked nervously around. Sakura could be here at any moment!

"You're no coming with me, dobe," Sasuke said as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Don't even think about it!" His entire manner seemed cold.

Naruto was wiping his mouth as he heard Sasuke's words. His hand froze in mid-wipe. "Nani!" He turned quickly to Sasuke who was staring at him with an intensely serious expression on his face. The Uchiha wasn't kidding. "Demo..." and Naruto couldn't think of a good reason to go with him, couldn't think of a good reason for Sasuke to take him with him. He didn't even have permission from Tsunade to leave the village...

"It's only going to be for a little while..." Sasuke said slowly. The words felt unusual and foreign as they left his mouth. "I'll be back soon." He wasn't one for comforting words and he wasn't sure if it sounded as comforting as it did in his head. "Just...wait for me." His voice was low, almost inaudible...and as Naruto continued to stare at the ground, he thought that the blond might not have heard him. "Naruto?"

"Yeah..." the blond said, his voice a little stifled as his blurring eyes continued to stare at the dark-haired boy's feet, his head tilted toward the ground. "I heard you..."

'_Why...? Why do I feel like...' _

Naruto clutched his chest. He felt as if his heart was being skewered simultaneously by every kunai in Konoha.

"I'll just...let you go."

Sasuke lifted a hand up to touch Naruto's face, but dropped it as it neared the blond. From where he stood, he could see the trails of tears that streamed down the sides of the shorter nin's face. Large round drops fell to the ground as freely as rain, and he knew that it was even harder for Naruto to say goodbye than it was for him to leave him here.

'_My dobe...'_

The dark-haired nin wanted to grab hold of Naruto's hand and tell him that he was lying, that he could come with him. He wanted to take Naruto on this mission, as he had gone on dozens of missions with the blond shinobi before. But...Sasuke held back. He couldn't do it. This was something that he had to do alone. He couldn't ever allow anyone to see this side of him. Never.

There was only the sound of the gates closing in Naruto's ears to signify the departure of the dark-haired nin. He couldn't bear to look up, to see Sasuke's retreating back, and as the sound of the closed gates reached his ears, Naruto crumbled to the ground, his head buried between his knees, soaking his pants. He hadn't wanted to admit it. He was in denial before...but he knew now. He really was in love with Sasuke.

**End Chapter 5**

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

To lie, To lie and To lay. Confused yet? 'To lie'--lying--as in 'to tell a falsehood' has the present tense 'lie', the past tense 'lied' and the past participle 'lied.' 'To lie'--also lying--as in 'to rest in a horizontal position' has the present tense 'lie', the past tense 'lay' and the past participle 'lain.' To lay'--laying--as in 'to place something down in a flat position' has the present tense 'lay', the past tense 'laid' and the past participle 'laid.' If you're still confused, feel free to ask me anything about this.

Fire's babbling:

Fire: Okay, I'm trying to keep the English to a minimum. This is something that I thought people might have problems with. Those three verbs are so confusing when you first look at them...

Naruto: (staring at the English tidbits) Huh...?

Fire: (crying) Sasuke, you heartless bastard! Why can't you just forget about your brother and stay with Naruto like a good boy!

Naruto: (confused) Uh...Sasuke's not here...

Fire: I know!

Tobi: Tobi's a good boy.

Fire: Umm... Nevermind... (turning back to the audience) If you're confused about the last line, about Naruto's revelation...he has been in denial about it for the last three chapters (since chapter 3) but this line refers specifically to what had happened back in chapter 4 when Naruto accidentally told Sasuke that he loved him. I love the irony!

Naruto: (confused) Huh...?

Kakashi: (smiling through his mask) I get it.

Fire: Well...I guess I'll be co-writing with Naruto for a little while longer, until Sasuke comes back. Good thing there's two of them for this story. I know not everyone likes Sakura, but since she wasn't in the last few chapters, I'm going to put more of her in the story. It's still going to be Naruto and Sasuke-centric though, so don't worry too much about that.

Naruto: (sniffing and holding back tears) But I love Sakura-chan...

Fire: (smiling brightly) And if you have any complaints about too much Sakura, send all your complaints to Naruto. See you all next time and remember to review!

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	6. Waiting for Sasuke

Fire: Welcome to Chapter 6!

Naruto: (waving an unenthusiastic flag) Yay.

Fire: Be more enthusiastic! Sasuke would have been more-- (covers mouth quickly with both hands)

Naruto: (slumping to the floor) Sasuke... (sniff)

Fire: (giving Naruto a quick hug before turning back to the audience) Well...on with concerns about the last chapter.

Sakura: (trying to cheer up Naruto) Good reviews!

Fire: First, I want to apologize for being so mean to Naruto. A lot of people have sent in reviews about Naruto's current situation, and I know that it's sad. That's why it's partially a tragedy. I can't promise that it's going to get any better...

Naruto: (even louder) WAAH!

Fire: ...but I don't hate Naruto. In fact, Naruto happens to be one of my favourite characters. That's why I just have to give him a hard time. That's the kind of character he is. You can only love him more because he's a tragic character, like all the other extremely powerful male characters in Naruto (especially Naruto with Sasuke, Gaara, and Kakashi not too far behind), not to mention most of the female characters as well (especially Tsunade with Sakura, Anko, Shizune, and Chiyo not too far behind).

Kakashi: Don't I know it...

Fire: Now I know that we all _love_ Naruto. And I can't stress that enough..._Naruto_!

Naruto: (suddenly stops crying) Huh?

Fire: (finally ignoring Naruto now that he has stopped crying) But we won't really love him as much if he wasn't the tragic character that he is. That's what makes Naruto, Naruto. (smiles) But I still like the feedback about how tragic he is. It reminds me that I'm doing my job and writing the story correctly. But...don't hate me too much if bad things happen to him.

Kakashi: (pointing to himself) What about me?

Fire: Don't worry, nothing bad's going to happen to you...for now.

Kakashi: I don't like the sound of that.

Sakura: Um...Naruto's still crying.

Naruto: (slumping on the ground, sulking) ...

Fire: At least he's not making any noise anymore.

Kakashi: ...

Sakura: ...

Fire: ...Okay, that's weird, even for me.

Kakashi: The noisiest ninja in all of Konoha...

Sakura: ...not making noise...

Kakashi: Hokage-sama! (shunshins away)

Fire: (sweating) We're going to find a medic-nin for Naruto. You...just read the new chapter! (grabs Naruto and runs for the nearest exit)

Sakura: (runs after Fire and Naruto) I know where the hospital is!

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Disclaimer: Nothing's changed yet... Kishimoto-sensei still owns Naruto. I still only have Naruto stocks. But I do own the verb 'to shunshin' and all conjugations (ie. I shunshin, you shunshin, he/she shunshins...etc, shunshin-ed, and shunshin-ing). Although Kishimoto-sensei still owns the technique, 'shunshin no jutsu.' (sniff)

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**Chapter 6: Waiting for Sasuke**

**W**hen Sakura came to the gates a few days after Sasuke's departure, she found Naruto sitting with his back against the wall that surrounded Konoha, his head lowered against the knees folded against his chest. His arms were folded, his hands clutching his hair in painful clumps, his hitai-ate lying at his side in the dust. She stood in front of him, not quite sure what to do. She was sure that Naruto never intended for anyone to see him like this, even if countless passing citizens must have seen him waiting here by now. Even the sentries were unsure of what to do about him. The boy has been sitting there for such a long time now.

Sakura had come earlier–on the day that Sasuke had left Konoha–and had seen Sasuke walking out of the village, but she couldn't bring herself to walk forward to say goodbye. She had seen the dark-haired boy's hand rise up to touch the blond chuunin with such shaking uncertainty, then retreat in such tormented pain that she had wanted to grab him and not let him go. She had had every intention of convincing Sasuke to stay.

But the words that Naruto had said to him, those five words... _'I'll just...let you go.'_ ...had frozen Sakura in her place. She had seen the tears roll down the sides of Naruto's face with such vivid emotion that she couldn't face them with her selfish desire. That day, she had run away without a word to Sasuke, or to Naruto.

She had waited a few days to allow herself to forget that heart wrenching emotion which had welled up at the sight of them together, but even as she looked down at Naruto's sorrowful body, she couldn't help but feel the world weighing heavily on her chest, suffocating her.

"Ano...Naruto?" Sakura said cautiously as she bent down to look at him a little more closely. "Daijoubu?"

The blond turned his head side to side before lifting his face in a huge smile to look at Sakura. "Yeah!" He said, sounding overly happy as he looked at her, but she could see the puffiness in his eyes and the glistening wet lines on his sleeves that said otherwise. He was crying. "Demo...Sakura-chan gomen... Sasuke has already left."

Sakura smiled sadly at Naruto, her eyes sparking with unshed tears. He can be so clueless sometimes...but, that was why she liked being around him. That apology... She knew what he was really apologizing for... "I know," she said as she held out her hand to Naruto.

She understood now. Sasuke had never wanted to be with her. Sasuke...had wanted to be with..._him_.

"Come, Naruto. I'll buy you some ramen at Ichiraku's."

But, she wasn't going admit that to herself. In her heart, she knew, but her mind insisted... Sasuke only had a crush on Naruto. He would return to her sooner or later. Naruto could never give him what he really wanted. Sasuke could never truly love the blond shinobi...

"Okay, Sakura-chan." Naruto grabbed his dirty hitai-ate with one hand and his pack with the other, his face falling for a single moment before he covered his worry and sorrow with his all too familiar mask of happiness. He smiled his huge smile at Sakura as he walked alongside her. He was sure that she didn't know about him and Sasuke, and he wanted to keep it from her for as long as possible, even though he could never bring himself to ask her for a date as he did before. His heart died at the thought of betraying Sasuke. "Ramen!" He said with forced joy, even though he didn't really want to go to the ramen stand today. "Ramen! Ramen! Ramen!"

And in Naruto's adamant concentration, he didn't even notice the passing pain that flitted over the pink-haired kunoichi's face as she looked at him. And...there was something else there as well. Sakura couldn't quite name it...because she didn't want to name it. If she had had to assign it a name, she knew that it would be jealousy.

Sakura knew that she didn't want to feel this way. Naruto was her friend. She didn't want to hate him like this, but her heart cried out for Sasuke so loudly that it deafened her ears to the sound of friendship calling out from her conscience. Sasuke... His deep dark eyes... The melodious sound of his voice as he said her name... _'Sakura...'_ She couldn't get it out of her mind!

She looked over to the blond boy who sat at her side, eating his second bowl of ramen. _Only _his SECOND bowl of ramen! Even with all the blond's hard work to appear unaffected by Sasuke's leaving, his behaviour betrayed him. The red eyes that looked out from the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's face, the hollow love of ramen here at Ichiraku's, the pained looks from the only two staff members at this ramen stand said a million things to her observant shinobi eyes. Even if the brain beyond her wide forehead hadn't realized it yet, there was no way she would have missed it now. The blond nin missed the Uchiha...even more than she did.

Her eye twitched a little as jealousy entered her heart and clouded her mind once more. Her hand hovered over the kunai pouch at her side, but her conscience wouldn't allow her to do what her hand wanted to do. She wouldn't stab Naruto. She wouldn't torture him. She wouldn't make him swear to leave Sasuke alone!

Her hand dropped from her side, and she laid it on the counter to clutch the cold glass of frozen smoothie in front of her tightly. She had ordered something cold, hoping that it would cool her down, calm the jealous anger that swirled within her and threatened to destroy Naruto at all costs.

The pink-haired Kunoichi took a long sip, ignoring the freezing headache that came with drinking too fast.

"Sakura-chan..." The words came slow.

Sakura turned to look at Naruto who was looking back at her in return. His second bowl was empty. "Yes, Naruto-kun? You want another bowl of–"

The blond nin shook his head, cutting off her sentence with the simple gesture. "No," he said as he looked down at the counter, avoided the concerned gaze of the kunoichi. He knew that it probably looked suspicious–strange that he didn't eat more–but, he just wanted to go home now and pretend that Sasuke was still here...in Konoha...just, not with him right now...but he'll drop by later–perhaps tomorrow–and they would train together like they used to, or since Kakashi-sensei was back, they would go on a mission–maybe a D-ranked mission–and he would complain to Tsunade-obaachan about how they should get a higher ranking mission considering how they were chuunin now, and Sasuke would call him baka and a dobe and he would yell at him... Naruto smiled to himself at the thought. "I...just want to go home." But he wasn't going to tell Sakura that he wanted to pretend that Sasuke was still around. If he did, he might...

His eyes were itching, and his vision was blurring slowly.

"Bye, Sakura-chan. Arigatou...for the ramen." He turned away quickly before the tears welling in his eyes could spill over.

'_Chikusho! I swore I won't cry anymore!'_

Naruto ran home before anyone could look close enough to see the round drops of light that flew from his eyes and disappeared into the air, leaving only an empty darkness in his chest.

**T**wo days...that was how long Naruto lay in bed, staring at his ceiling. His mind was numb...because he had refused to allow it to think of anything. If he had allowed it to think, it would have eventually trailed off toward the topic of...Sasuke. And he couldn't allow that to happen.

He hadn't eaten since the day Sasuke left, since the two bowls of ramen that Sakura had bought for him. That was about four days ago now. And he was hungry.

'_That was so nice of Sakura-chan, even though I...'_

_**Stole her boyfriend?**_

'_Urusai, damn Kyuubi!'_

The Kyuubi snickered at that. **_It is true...isn't it?_**

Naruto was silent as he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. "Yeah," he sighed in defeat. The Kyuubi might be a pain in the neck, but he hasn't been wrong yet...although he wasn't going to tell the demon that. He didn't want to inflate the kitsune's ego.

"Naruto." A cheery voice came from the door to his bedroom, and for a moment, the blond thought about pretending to be asleep. But he knew that the grey-haired jounin wouldn't fall for it. "I brought you a fruit basket." Kakashi was too persistent. He would probably jab at Naruto until he woke up.

Naruto turned his head slightly to look at the basket in his sensei's hand. Then, he turned to stare at the ceiling once more. Kakashi had let himself in again, through the window in his living room, or perhaps his kitchen. He should think about getting those locks fixed...but Kakashi-sensei would probably shunshin in if he did that...

"Just put it down," the blond chuunin said. His voice was monotone.

"Come now Naruto," Kakashi said as he ignored the blond's suggestion. "You're going to die of starvation." He held out an orange, but after a moment's neglect, he placed the orange back into the basket and placed the basket onto the floor. "I know you haven't eaten anything for two days."

'_Great... Now Kakashi-sensei's stalking me...'_

"I'm fine on my own," the jinchuuriki said as he closed his eyes. He was so tired. He didn't want to leave his comfortable bed. He just wanted to pretend that Sasuke never left, and in order to do that, he had to stay here...because if he left this bed, he would see that the village was empty, that the Uchiha was gone.

Naruto knew that it was unusual for him to lie in bed like this and mope around, but it was difficult to do anything else. With his curtains closed, the comfortable darkness engulfed him, and he could forget about Sasuke's absence for a while...forget about his promise.

'_Just...wait for me...'_

And the blond shinobi couldn't possibly break his promise to Sasuke. That was his way of the ninja! He would never take back his word...especially his word to Sasuke!

"I'll buy you ramen..." Kakashi tried tempting the boy. Ramen usually worked. At least, that was what Iruka said, and Kakashi's past experience proved it. He needed something to cheer up the blond nin.

Kakashi hadn't known that Sasuke was back. When he had left on that mission to search for any signs of Akatsuki, Sasuke was with Orochimaru, but of course that was back in April. It was mid-July when he returned.

"_Sasuke-kun?" Sakura thought to herself as she looked at her sensei. His visit was unexpected, and she didn't know what her mother and father would do if they knew that her perverted sensei was sitting in her room...with her...alone. But Sakura didn't think about things like that. "Hmm... Makes sense that you wouldn't know. He returned about a month after you left." _

_Kakashi was listening with intense concentration. "And...? Why did he leave Orochimaru! What was he doing at Naruto's house!" He was out of the loop. He needed to know. It wasn't even because he was gossiping! He just wanted to know the extent of the damage he had done when he went to Naruto's house._

_Sakura stared at her sensei. "He was...at Naruto's house?" She hadn't known that..._

_And Kakashi felt the killer intent in the air suddenly rise. "Uh... Just tell me why Sasuke returned!" He couldn't believe how the kunoichi was acting, but then, of course she would be angry...especially since he had told her that he had run into Sasuke in the morning. He hadn't told her that it was with Naruto though...but she was smart enough to figure that out by now._

_Sakura stared at Kakashi. "It was because he had learned everything that he could from Orochimaru...and it still wasn't enough. He said that he had found out that Orochimaru was weak compared to members of Akatsuki. So, since his brother's a part of this organization, and Orochimaru is supposed to be weaker than every one of them...there was no point in studying under him. He just left and returned here once he caught up with Naruto." Sakura shrugged, as if it was nothing. "But all he did was talk about Naruto...or he wanted to be with Naruto...then he left me for Naruto!" Her voice was angry now. "If he was so much in love with him, why didn't he tell me in the first place!"_

So, Kakashi could understand what he had done to Naruto. He couldn't help but want to cheer him up. Buying him ramen was the least he could do after destroying their harmonious little relationship.

"No, thank you anyway, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as he pulled his blankets over his head, trying to muffle out the sound of the grey-haired man's voice. He wasn't in the mood to eat anything, not even ramen. "Just leave me alone."

Kakashi pulled the blanket down forcefully from the blond's bed, letting all of it just fall to the floor, leaving Naruto's pyjama-clad body uncovered. "Okay," he said with stifled annoyance as he plopped himself down on the edge of the bed. He had tried one way to cheer up Naruto, and now he was going to resort to drastic measures. "I was going to say it later...after I ask Hokage-sama about it, but..." He took a deep breath. He hadn't actually thought about telling Naruto this at all. Chances were...it wouldn't work. "...I'm putting together a team to go after Sasuke...as backup." But he guessed that Naruto would want to come since they both knew that Sasuke had gone alone, and Tsunade hadn't assigned anyone to watch over him...

Besides, it would take Naruto out of this slump and cheer him up if he were to see Sasuke again...

But, Kakashi wasn't prepared for Naruto's reaction.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he stared at his sensei in attendant surprise. For a moment, the light was back in his eyes. "Really!" He shouted as he sat up in his bed. Kakashi moved back a little...then a bit more as the foul odour of three days' neglected hygiene hit him. "Take me with you! Please take me with you, Kakashi-sensei!" He had to help him. He had to help Sasuke. This was Sasuke's goal, his dream! And Naruto wanted to be a part of it...

'_Just...wait for me.'_ Sasuke's face when he said those words filled Naruto's vision.

'_Yeah... I'll just...let you go.'_

Naruto's face fell as he remembered the promise that he had made to Sasuke. "I want to go...but..." His way of the ninja... He couldn't break his word...

Kakashi's eyes widened a little at the blond's words. Anyone could see the battle waging within the blond shinobi. The jounin could remember those words first spoken by Naruto on their first C-ranked mission together as a team, repeated at the Chuunin Exams. _'I won't go back on my word. That's my way of the ninja!'_

"I'm sure that Sasuke could use your help," he said a little slyly as he stood up from the boy's bed. If he didn't think of something, Naruto wouldn't be coming with him...which wouldn't a bad thing, but he would just be sulking in the dark anyway... "He _could _use the support. This _IS_ _Akatsuki_ he's headed into." ...and Kakashi couldn't just let Naruto fall into such a depression.

Naruto nodded his head slowly at the thought. Kakashi was right. Kakashi was always right. Just this once, he was going to go against his word. At least, he thought about going against his word...

'_But I can't! I can't go against my word!' _

He couldn't just go, not when he had promised himself that he would keep his promise...not when he had promised Sasuke that he would wait for him here, in Konoha...not when Sasuke was expecting him to be waiting at the gates for his return...not when Sasuke didn't want him to be there...

'_Sasuke...'_

An image of Sasuke, fighting his brother, flashed into Naruto's mind. Kunai... Shuriken... Blood-covered... Pain...all over Sasuke's face.

Naruto's entire body froze, encased in freezing ice that numbed his skin completely. This pain that had spread through his body...this freezing cold that had entered his chest... He had felt this before...when they had fought Haku...when he had thought that Sasuke was dead.

'_Sasuke can't be dead!'_

Sitting up in his bed, Naruto clutched his chest with a frantic hand, trying to pry that uneasy emotion from his heart.

'_Sasuke... Can he hold up against Akatsuki...by himself!'_

There was such apprehension within him at what he was about to do, but the weight was even heavier when he realized that he couldn't _not_ break his word. He couldn't help but feel as if he needed to get to Sasuke...now! _'To hell with my promise! I can't just let Sasuke get himself killed!'_ Because if he didn't get to Sasuke now, Sasuke really might die.

Kakashi didn't know anything about the argument within Naruto's mind, but he had seen the boy's slow nod, and the jounin had taken it as consent. "I'll come get you later," he said as he looked at the blond nin one more time to make sure that he wasn't going to do anything stupid...then walked toward the door.

"Kakashi-sensei..." Even with urgency pulling within him, none of that emotion showed in Naruto's calm voice.

"Yes, Naruto?" The grey-haired jounin stopped at the door, his hand on the doorframe. He didn't turn around.

"Use the front door."

The jounin slowly continued on his way out. It wasn't anything _important_...as he had feared. For a moment, he had thought that Naruto had changed his mind. "Yes...of course, Naruto. I'll see you later."

As the door closed after his sensei, Naruto felt the vacuum in his stomach–which has been around since Sasuke left–fill with fluttering anticipation and excitement. He was going to see Sasuke again...and he would help him.

_**And you'll break your promise.**_

And he didn't care if he broke his promise! He didn't care if Sasuke got mad at him. As long as he was with him again, he knew that the dark-haired chuunin would be happy. He knew that it would be okay.

'_At least...I hope he'll be happy to see me...'_

And for a moment, the fear that had momentarily left the blond shinobi's body, filled him again, and he slumped back into his bed, surrounded by that heavy darkness.

**End Chapter 6**

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Here's another confusing pair: 'affect' and 'effect.' I'm not sure if anyone actually pays that much attention to what I write, but I used the term 'unaffected' instead of 'uneffected' in the fourteenth paragraph from the first (inclusive). Why? 'Affect' is used to denote emotion. 'To affect' means to bring about an 'effect'. 'Effect' as a noun is the result of a cause, the result of making something happen. 'To effect' means the same thing as 'to cause something to happen' or 'to bring about a change.' I don't know how to really explain it better than that. They both have similar meanings to begin with... Consult your nearest English teacher, English professor, English expert or dictionary if you're still confused.

Fire's babbling:

Fire: We're back from the hospital and Naruto is just fine!

Naruto: (waving shyly at everyone, embarrassed about what had happened earlier) Hi...

Fire: (looks at the story)

Naruto: (looks at the story)

Fire: (speaking slowly) Well, that's some 'way of the ninja,' Naruto... Seems like you can just abandon it whenever you want...

Naruto: (growling in annoyance) I'm not abandoning it! My way of the ninja also states to protect those most precious to you too! It's the first rule! (mumbling to self) Other than not killing others if you can avoid it, keeping your promises, living on because death is not the...

Fire: (smiling and cutting off Naruto's list) Oh...I know all that! I just thought that we might want to clarify it.

Naruto: (still annoyed) You're worse than Kakashi-sensei...

Kakashi: (sad) I'm really that bad...?

Naruto: Where were you!

Kakashi: (slumping visibly) I was standing right here...

Both Fire and Naruto: (shouting) Liar!

Kakashi: (insisting) But I was... (fading into the background again)

Fire: (abandoning the Kakashi-bashing) Now some concerns you might have had with the story...?

Naruto: Orochimaru's weak...? I didn't know that...

Fire: Every member of Akatsuki is strong enough to easily defeat Orochimaru in an even one-on-one battle. You learn something new everyday, don't you, Naruto?

Naruto: (crossing his arms) I knew that...

Fire: So...they're going to go after Sasuke... Who didn't see it coming? (looking around for a show of hands) Well...the problem would be catching up to Sasuke. It has been four days since he left Konoha, and who knows if he has caught up with his brother yet.

Naruto: (ears perking up at Sasuke's name) Sasuke! WAAH! (cries)

Sakura: (trying to comfort Naruto) I'm sure he'll be fine...

Fire: And Sakura really is genuinely concerned about Naruto. At the moment, she's just dwelling in a confusing place where she is concerned about Naruto, jealous of Naruto, likes Naruto, hates Naruto, etc. She doesn't really hate Naruto though.

Sakura: (yelling) Why would I hate Naruto!

Inner Sakura: Shannaro!

Fire: (ignoring Sakura) See you next chapter. Remember to review.

Sakura: (angry) You didn't answer me, dammit!


	7. Departure

Fire: I'm here with Kakashi, since he's saner than Sakura and Naruto at the moment.

Kakashi: Yo!

Fire: We're going after Sasuke today! The only problem is...how are we going to find him?

Kakashi: (mysterious) I have my ways...

Fire: (sweats) How... (has no idea how to finish that sentence)

Kakashi: (grin) ...

Fire: (ignoring Kakashi) Well...on with reviews...

Kakashi: But first, you might be wondering where I was the entire time...

Fire: We know that already!

Kakashi: (continuing anyway) I was on an S-ranked mission.

Fire: Reviews!

Kakashi: The reason that there were no available missions in Konoha is...

Fire: O.o (immediate silence) ...

Kakashi: ...

Fire: Well...?

Kakashi: (whispering) This is for suspense.

Fire: (angry) Just tell us already so I can get to the reviews!

Kakashi: (smiling) ...because of the category of assigned and non-assigned missions.

Fire: (unimpressed) I know that already...

Kakashi: When a client comes with a mission, it is a non-assigned mission. You can easily request that type of mission without worrying about a conflict of ninja rank. D-ranked and C-ranked missions are typically this way.

Fire: On with the reviews! (sighs and mumbles to self) Great...he's stuck in sensei mode.

Kakashi: (talking over Fire) But B-ranked and A-ranked missions are more complicated.

Fire: (turns around and walks out of the room) ...

Kakashi: (doesn't notice it) Sometimes, B-ranked and A-ranked missions are assigned. The reason for this is because there is no client. These missions are for security reasons, like hunter-nin missions when you have to track down a renegade shinobi (like when Sasuke ran off to Orochimaru: A-ranked) or to capture S-ranked criminals (S-ranked).

Fire: (walks stealthily into the room) ...

Kakashi: (doesn't notice since he's too engulfed in explaining) B-ranked assigned missions are typically information gathering missions which are less likely to result in a battle. Typically, assigned missions are not done with your team but with teams specifically put together for that task. A mission with a client that you request (like how I requested that Naruto and I go after Sasuke in the last chapter) would typically fall into this category of B-ranked assigned missions as well. At the time, even though Naruto was requesting missions, Konoha only had missions which are assigned, and Tsuande-sama didn't think that these missions could benefit from N-- O.O AGH!

Fire: (hits Kakashi in the head with a bat) ...

Kakashi: Ugh...

Fire: (placing bat on the floor) Had to find the right bat. Now, on with reviews!

Kakashi: ...

Fire: Okay, there are no reviews. What's wrong with you people! Do you like the story or hate it? Arrgh! I'm just going to write whatever I want regardless of whether it makes sense or not, then!

Kakashi: Ow...

Fire: (cooling down, and composing self with a smile) Anyway, this isn't one of my favourite chapters, but it's a necessary transitional chapter. Bear with me here... :( ...I'm trying my best to make everything run smoothly without it sounding too boring or choppy.

Kakashi: (still wincing) On with the story.

---------------------------

Disclaimer: The verb "to shunshin" and all conjugations (ie. I shunshin, you shunshin, he/she shunshins...etc, shunshin-ed, shunshin-ing) belong to Fire although the technique "Shunshin no jutsu" still belong to Kishimoto-sensei. All other disclaimers still apply. I want to stop reminding people that I own that verb now so don't try to steal it without my permission. :P

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**Chapter 7: Departure**

**T**here was a certain anticipation in the early morning air as Naruto stood at the gates, again with his deep green backpack slung over his shoulders as he paced apprehensively. He had wanted to wait at home, but he couldn't bring himself to stay there...so, he came here instead. He wanted to leave as soon as Kakashi came to get him. He knew that his jounin sensei would know where he was. The grey-haired man was always late, but he always knew everything, even without having to be told.

Naruto looked at the tall walls that stretched out from either side of the even taller gates of Konoha, and an overwhelming sadness came over him. He was going to break the promise that he had made to Sasuke. He had said that he would wait for him, yet here he was, about to follow him to Akatsuki. "I really did want to wait for you...Sasuke," he whispered to himself, even though he knew that Sasuke couldn't hear him.

"The sky looks threatening, doesn't it, Naruto?"

The startled blond turned quickly to the pink-haired kunoichi...then to the sky. It certainly was dark, and the rumble of thunder that momentarily made Naruto jump only served to make the girl giggle. "Sa–Sakura-chan! What are you doing here!" Naruto blushed a little at the jumpiness he had displayed only a moment before. He was so anxious about setting off.

"I decided that it might be best if we had a medic-nin with us," Kakashi said logically as he appeared behind Sakura, seemingly on time but if there had been a set meeting time–because there wasn't one in this case–he would surely have been late, with a lame excuse on his silver tongue. Somehow he failed to mention that Sakura had pestered him about it until he relented and allowed her to come with them. "Besides, she is a part of the team."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the incredibly suspicious sensei. He had a feeling that Kakashi was holding something back from him. "This is a team mission now?" And he had thought that they were only going to provide backup for Sasuke, in case he needed it. Not to mention he was worried about the dark-haired shinobi as well.

"You're not the only one who's worried about him, baka!" Sakura yelled at the boy as she punched him hard on the head. "Now, let's go before it gets too dark."

The blond shinobi nodded his head in agreement as he headed for the gates, a hand on his aching head. His heart pounded so loudly in his ears that he was sure that the sentries who watched him pass by could hear it. He was going. He was really going!

Kakashi looked worriedly at the blond boy as he walked through the gates, flashing his shinobi passport with the Hokage's official seal, signifying Tsunade's permission to leave the hidden village. Usually, Naruto was so much louder, so much more excited when they headed out for missions. With the boy being so unusually quiet, he couldn't help but feel an ominous pressure in the air.

"Can you feel it too, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura startled him a little as she spoke. He had forgotten that she was there. "The sinister quality in the air?"

Kakashi nodded slightly as they followed after the blond nin. Sakura had felt it too. "Don't tell Naruto. He's worked up enough without needing to know."

"Hey! Kakashi-sensei, which way are we supposed to go?" The blond demanded from a little ahead of them. With all his excitement, his enthusiasm, it wasn't a wonder that he couldn't feel it.

Kakashi smiled at that, his one visible eye under his hitai-ate curved with nostalgic familiarity. It was just like Naruto to walk off without even knowing where he was supposed to go. "Maybe I should take the lead, Naruto." He walked ahead of the blond. "I know where we're supposed to go." He was the one who had found them in the first place. He just hoped that Sasuke hadn't made it there already, even if he had a four day head start, and a half if he included today. At least Akatsuki was well hidden. Even with directions, Kakashi knew that it was possible–although it was a very slim chance–to catch up to Sasuke before he found them.

**T**here was guilt in Sasuke's heart as he left Naruto, but he ripped it out with trembling hands and threw it aside, stomping it flat to make sure that it wouldn't return to him. It was cruel–he knew that–but he couldn't ignore the feeling that had welled up when he heard Kakashi say those words. He had found Itachi. He knew where Itachi was. And all the feelings that he had had for his brother–the constant thoughts of his brother that were omnipresent since his family was slaughtered– flooded his mind, and all he could see was Itachi. Naruto vanished from his mind as soon as he stepped out of that village. There was only Itachi now. As it had been since that day.

So, he was annoyed when he realized that he was lost. After three days' travel, he was lost. He knew that he was close. Taki no Kuni wasn't too far away now–the map clearly depicted Itachi's location as being somewhere near the Taki no Kuni and Hi no Kuni border–but he was lost!

The map that Kakashi had drawn, which depicted the location of Akatsuki–and Itachi–with reference to the location of Konohagakure, was easy enough to follow, but there was hesitation within him. Hesitation had made him lose focus, and he deviated from the map.

"Chikusho!" Sasuke crumpled the map in his angry hands before unfolding the scroll again. He had to retrace his steps if he was going find them. If he was going to find _him_.

But, he wasn't going to be lost forever. Sasuke wasn't stupid. He was a proper shinobi, and he would think of a way out of this situation...even though he wasn't going to really admit that he was in a bad situation. A shinobi shouldn't be distracted from his task enough to get lost in the first place! All he needed to do was sit down and think. He wasn't Naruto.

'_Aahh! Where are we! We're lost!'_ That was what Naruto would say if he was here.

'_Urusai, dobe! We're right here!'_

Sasuke smiled a little to himself at the thought as he found himself on the map. He knew that he wouldn't stay lost for long.

The dark-haired shinobi rolled the map carefully before replacing it in his kunai pouch. _'If I remember correctly, that way is North, so I should head this way.'_ He turned northwest and began his way hurriedly forward. He had already wasted a lot of time wandering around in circles. If he didn't hurry, Itachi might move. Then he would have lost his chance at vengeance. And he couldn't allow that to happen. Not after the long wait he had had to endure.

**S**asuke had been walking–since he didn't want to get lost again–for almost another day before he was attacked. He should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy to get to Itachi. Of course, there were other Akatsuki members nearby. And there was one Akatsuki member, aside from Itachi, Sasuke was ready for. It was predictable that he would be here.

"The young Uchiha..." The blue skinned man was staring at Sasuke...but then, he stared at everything through his round eyes.

"..." Just like his brother, he didn't say anything, only charged forward. To get to Itachi, he had to get through this obstacle first.

But, of course the nukenin had no intention of letting Sasuke through. He grabbed his sword immediately, sending the white bandages around Samehada flying in all directions. Sasuke threw his arm up instantly to shield his face as bits of linen fell on him.

And that was what Kisame was waiting for. With his arms over his head, the Uchiha couldn't see or react as he normally did. The shark man swung his sword around to the dark-haired boy.

**_Chakra...!_** Samehada's victory cry rang through the air for a moment before Sasuke jumped away and it found itself grazing across a tree. **_Chikusho!_**

"You said it!" Kisame balanced his weight enough to launch himself at Sasuke once more.

But by this time, the Uchiha had had enough time to recover. He was no longer blind. _'Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!'_ The signature katon technique of the Uchiha clan...but the dark-haired shinobi hadn't expected it to hit. So, he wasn't surprised when he missed.

Kisame appeared right behind the boy and clove him in two. But, the nukenin had no illusions about his enemy either. He knew that the young Uchiha has been studying under Orochimaru. So, he was anything but surprised when he saw the two halves of the shinobi's body fall to the ground as two halves of a log. A kawarimi.

Kisame held up his hand to catch an attempted kick to his head by the Uchiha. For a moment, the blue skinned man had thought that the boy would try another ninjutsu, but he knew that Itachi's little brother wasn't as foolish as that. Sasuke was saving his chakra for the fight later on.

And that was why Kisame had the upper hand...that and another reason.

Kisame took a deep breath as he initiated the jutsu. _'Fire attacks...just like Itachi-san. Well...that's not going to work with me! Suiton: bakusui sho–!'_

Sasuke landed two very good kicks to Kisame's gut, cancelling the attack before he could even complete it. Samehada dropped to the ground.

"During the time you initiate a jutsu, you're wide open for attack, baka," Sasuke said to Kisame as he kicked the sword away, slammed his arm into the back of the blue man's head.

Kisame dropped to the ground, but...he wasn't out yet. He reached out his hand and called for his sword...

...and obediently, Samehada flew to the hand of its master.

Sasuke leapt back before Samehada could catch hold of him, but already, he felt chakra draining from his body...even though the sword hadn't hit him. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if that sword had connected.

'_Chikusho! I can't keep up like this!'_ It was then that he realized that he wasn't just in a fight. He was in a fight with a member of Akatsuki. He couldn't afford to hold back. _'I need to finish this...now!'_

With renewed determination, Sasuke threw himself at the nukenin. This time, he wasn't going to miss. This time–his chakra concentrated on his right hand, his eyes glowing red–he was going to hit him.

Kisame was ready for the attack, until he saw the boy vanish. _'Shunshin...no jutsu!'_ He had thought that the boy was a chuunin. Sasuke couldn't..._shouldn't_ know a jounin-level technique like shunshin!

There was a wet shluck and as Kisame fell forward, Sasuke's hand through his chest, he remembered the sharingan. This boy had the sharingan...but he hadn't used it until the very end.

'_He was...holding back...'_

The blue man landed onto the ground with a sickly thud. Sasuke shook his hand free of his opponent's dark blood before sliding to the ground. He needed rest. He had used up so much chakra fighting this nuisance. He was just going to let his eyes close...for a moment... Itachi wasn't going to go anywhere without his partner.

And it was much longer before Sasuke awoke to continue his journey with replenished chakra and an already rotting blue corpse on the ground.

**N**aruto felt cold anticipation in his heart as they continued forward. "How much longer, Kakashi-sensei?" He whined again. He was also pestering his sensei to move faster, but he decided to do it separately. He didn't want to annoy the jounin too much and get them all lost. That would be really bad.

"I told you already, Naruto. We're really close now. It shouldn't be much longer." The grey-haired jounin spoke with incredible calm. He was used to dealing with Naruto. And besides, he was running out of chakra with all the times Naruto had forced him to shunshin forward. Sure...they knew where they were going. They could just shunshin there...but there was no way that he could allow himself, or the other members of his team, to do it. They didn't know what was waiting for them when they got there. It could be nothing, but it could also be the entire Akatsuki organization waiting in ambush. "I'll tell you when we get there." They had already cut a lot of time off their journey. There was nothing more that he could do now.

Naruto was silent for another moment before speaking again. "We should hurry up," the blond nin said, the same thing he had said not too long before. Somehow, he felt as if they were too late. He feared that they might come to their destination only to find Sasuke's bloody corpse. And Naruto's heart gripped at the thought, hoping that it wasn't true.

Kakashi was ignoring him though. They were already moving as fast as they could without drawing attention from any Akatsuki scouts who might be in this area. The jounin wanted to avoid confrontation as much as possible. They were supposed to be Sasuke's backup, and they wouldn't be of much use if Akatsuki prepared for their arrival. Then, they'd be even more outnumbered.

"We're her–" Kakashi was about to announce that they've reached their destination, but the sound of a battle up ahead–the sound of a boy's scream–said everything that they needed to know.

Sasuke was already here.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as he ran forward, almost tripping over the corpse of a blue-skinned man. "Sasuke!"

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted as she ran after him.

"The baka!" Kakashi swore under his breath–the only one to remember stealth in their approach–before following after them.

The blond was sure that Sasuke needed him. In the trees, drops of fire rained down and on the ground, red stained the burning leaves. The sky was still brooding overhead as if waiting to taunt him for his efforts. But, Naruto _couldn't_ allow anything to distract him. And he _wasn't _going to allow anything to distract him. He did what he did best and charged in without thinking...because if he had thought about it, he surely wouldn't have run–even if he was an idiot-nin–toward a possible Akatsuki stronghold where there was only going to be him and Sasuke.

**End Chapter 7**

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Fragments...what are they? In English, there are independent and dependent clauses. Independent clauses are sentences which can stand on their own, that have a subject, verb and object like "Sasuke killed Itachi." Sasuke is the subject, kill is the verb, and Itachi is the object. However, dependent clauses cannot stand on their own. So if I say "Sasuke killed Itachi and it was easy," then "and it was easy" would be a dependent clause. They have to be attached to an independent clause otherwise it would be a "fragment" which is the term used for saying that you've used a dependent clause separately without attaching it to an independent clause and that is incorrect grammar. However, when writing a story, it is okay to use fragments. It is one of many devices used by authors in order to draw attention to a fact. So if I wrote "Sasuke killed Itachi and it was easy" and "Sasuke killed Itachi. And it was easy," both these sentences would have different meaning. The first sentence is easily dismissed by readers and the fact that it was easy to kill Itachi wouldn't have much weight, but the second sentence draws more attention to the fragment. The fact that it was an easy task has significance. Fragments usually begin with prepositions (ie. in, about, for, after...etc) or conjunctions (ie. and, if, but, because…etc) so keep an eye out for them and use them only when you want to use them and not by accident. If you use them too much, it will take away from its effect.

Fire's babbling:

Fire: ... (staring) When did you come back?

Sasuke: (raising an eyebrow at Fire) What do you mean? I just went to get some popcorn. This is getting interesting.

Naruto: (sniff) Sasuke! (runs up to Sasuke and hugs him tightly)

Sasuke: (frowning) ...

Fire: Staying?

Sasuke: (looks down at Naruto who was hugging him tightly) Maybe not...

Fire: (turning back to the audience) Well...that was an interesting chapter, ne?

Kisame: (yelling) One chapter! One lousy chapter! And I get killed! Who wrote this crap!

Sasuke: I'm co-writing this...so be glad that you even had one chapter.

Kisame: But I'm already rotting!

Sasuke: (annoyed) Corpses are supposed to disintegrate the most during their first twenty-four hours!

Fire: Aren't you supposed to be dead?

Kisame: (sneaking away) Uh...yeah...dead...

Itachi: (walks after Kisame) ...

Sasuke: Itachi! (throws Naruto to the side and runs after Itachi)

Naruto: Sasuke! No! (crumples to the ground again and sobs silently)

Fire: Well...tune in next chapter to find out what that scream was about. It certainly was Sasuke's voice, but are they too late?

Kakashi: (smiling) I can always shunshin there...

Fire: (sighing) What if there is more than one Akatsuki member there...?

Kakashi: (thoughtful) Oh...yeah...

Fire: A horrific scream has cut through the air, and Naruto runs ahead of the group to Sasuke. I'm trying not to do cliff-hangers but at least a chapter or two in a book will have cliff-hangers, so don't hate me. Review and let me know what you think. Like the cliff-hangers? Hate them? Are the characters still in character or are they out of character by now? I need feedback! (emotional, mental and creative breakdown: slides to the floor at Naruto's side)

Kakashi: (patting Fire on the back) Why am I stuck with these two...?

Sakura: (walks nonchalantly up to the group) Tune in next chapter. (kneels at Naruto's side and tries to cheer him up)

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	8. Found

Fire: This is chapter 8. Sorry about the overuse of shunshin no jutsu. I know that it does take up a lot of chakra, especially since both Sakura and Naruto doesn't know the technique.

Sasuke: You're pushing it...

Fire: And I know that I'm pushing it... (sniff) It's just that I can't think of any other way to make the timelines work. Sasuke had a four and a half day head start and has reached the border by the end of three days because of his getting lost... Naruto and his group didn't leave Konoha until the middle of the fifth day... And Sasuke runs into Kisame on the fourth day...along with a long rest to replenish his chakra so he shouldn't even resume his journey until the fifth day... That means that the scream was on the fifth day! How did Naruto and his group get to the border of Taki no Kuni and Hi no Kuni in less than a day when it took Sasuke almost four days to get there! Writer's breakdown! Arggh!

Sasuke: I hate my life... (turns and resumes chasing after Itachi)

Naruto: No! Sasuke, don't go! (runs after Sasuke)

Kakashi: (shouting at Fire) Get a hold of yourself!

Fire: (blinks several times) Yeah...okay... (straightens up) Now...on with the reviews!

Kakashi: (reaches into a bag marked reviews and looks at the first window) It...is empty.

Fire: (stares at Kakashi) Are you sure…?

Kakashi: (nods) Yes…

Naruto: It's because you're mean to us.

Sasuke: (lies to the floor at Fire's feet in a depressed puddle) I demand more benefits!

Naruto: Strike!

Fire: I have no benefits…

Sasuke: Then what's the point…?

Fire: (suddenly depressed as well) No one's probably reading anymore…

Naruto: Lots of people are reading! Haven't you seen the stats!

Kakashi: (practical) but no one's reviewing…

Naruto: Because it's perfect! No one's complaining!

Sakura: I thought I was the complaints' department!

Sasuke: We're not a marketing company…

Kakashi: (smiling) Actually, I was joking. We have one review. (pulls out a review from the Bag of Reviews)

Fire: What? Give me that! (grabs the window from Kakashi) Thank you, Fractured Dreams! Yes, THERE WILL BE MORE SASUKE/NARUTO MOMENTS, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. (sniff) This is a SasuNaru, even if…

Sasuke: Fire's currently having an emotional breakdown. Someone roll the chapter!

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Warning: Wondering why this is rated T? Read on to find out, but if you're not one for blood and killing, skip this chapter and read the next one.

Warning: This is the most emotional chapter so if you're a crier, grab a box of tissues before reading it.

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Disclaimer: If you don't know what belongs to me and what belongs to Kishimoto-sensei, go back a chapter and look at the disclaimer there. Oh well…might as well repeat myself. I own the phrase "my dobe" and the verb "to shunshin" and all conjugations. If you don't know what a conjugation is, go back a chapter and read my examples. Kishimoto-sensei owns exclusive rights to the Naruto manga, the Naruto anime and all other Naruto-related items except for fanfiction since he's too nice to sue us. But I do own Naruto stocks…so I guess I sort of own Naruto…right? Right:( Guess not…

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**Chapter 8: Found**

**S**asuke's red eyes darted through the air as he searched for his brother in the rustling leaves overhead. Itachi was there. Sasuke knew that Itachi was there. If only the leaves weren't there, he could...

With the black cursed seal across his skin–since he couldn't possibly allow himself to use level two in this long fight–the younger Uchiha pressed his hands painfully together in four quick but difficult seals, careful to hide them lest his brother see. _'Serpent... Dragon... Hare... Tiger...'_ He aimed the attack at the canopy above his head before sending it around to the rest of the trees. _'Katon ryuuka no jutsu!'_

Itachi smiled a little to himself before dropping the uncharacteristic smile and jumping out of the way of the torrent of fire which flew through the leaves. He was a little surprised, even if it didn't show on his face. He had already cut a large gash along one arm and broken the other. He didn't think that his little brother could still perform seals.

The elder Uchiha appeared suddenly behind the smaller boy and smashed Sasuke to the ground with a single swift gesture of his arm. Sasuke's face met bitter dirt before he flipped himself back onto his feet not too far away. The younger Uchiha's face curved into a small smile as Itachi realized where he was standing. The elder Uchiha quickly leapt back as the fuuma shuriken that Sasuke had thrown into the air earlier cut through the very place that he was standing only a moment ago.

'_Don't think that you can defeat me that easily, otouto,' _Itachi thought to himself as the fuuma missed him by a hair, literally casting small feathers of his bangs into the raining fire that saturated the air.

The smile on Sasuke's face vanished as he raced toward his brother in a mock kamikaze run. He had no intention of dying. He couldn't let Naruto down. He had cut down that blue skinned man who had tried to stand in his way. He wasn't going to let anything stop him. He couldn't give up now that he was finally here. He would defeat his brother...so he could go back to Naruto, like he promised he would.

Blood flew from his injured left arm as Sasuke aimed for his brother's head, only to meet his blocking right arm. Itachi grabbed Sasuke's broken right arm and twisted it around, sending a single sharp cry of pain from his little brother's mouth into the darkened sky.

"You're still weak," Itachi said with vivid animosity as Sasuke looked up into his spinning red eyes.

'_The eyes... They've...changed!' _

Sasuke grabbed a kunai with his burning left hand and closed his eyes tight...but even if he closed his eyes, he knew that his brother could still kill him...in the conventional way. Itachi was still stronger than him, still had the advantage, and he could easily take that kunai from Sasuke's hand.

'_It's already broken anyway...' _Sasuke bit his bottom lip as he wrenched himself away from his brother and his deadly attack. He knew it all too well, and he had no intention of becoming catatonic in the middle of their fight.

Itachi frowned at the severed arm in his hand and threw it to the ground. _'Touche!'_ He never thought that his brother could bear to part with his dominant arm so easily.

'_Chikusho! Losing...too much blood...'_ Sasuke's vision blurred as thickening red liquid drenched his already bloodstained white shorts, and flowed freely to the ground. _'But...I'm not going to give up! Naruto's...counting on me!'_ But, he couldn't do seals anymore...not with one arm. He was doomed.

Unless...

With blurring eyes, he summoned all the chakra he had left in his body. He had practised enough to do it without seals. But he only had one shot at this. _'Naruto...gomen... I guess I'll have to break that promise...'_ The dark-haired boy's trembling hand clutched his aching chest for a moment before looking at his brother, all thoughts of Naruto gone again. One chance left. He had to make it count...

Itachi approached slowly–some would even say cautiously, but Itachi would never admit to that–toward his brother, his bloody body stained with his own blood was nowhere as beaten as Sasuke's but it still hurt to walk. However, he was in no hurry. It wasn't as if Sasuke could–

The sound of birds filled the air and a bright silver-blue light lit Sasuke's face from below. Itachi's eyes shifted, a tiny shuriken filling each of his eyes. He knew this attack. Sasuke had tried to use this on him before.

With calm hands–in spite of the blisters that had formed there from fighting his brother–Itachi bent down and plucked three kunai from the ground–since he had run out of shuriken a few parries ago–and flung it at his brother in a single swift motion. The three kunai landed all along Sasuke's arm, hitting his joint in the middle, the tendon on his upper arm and the major vein on his lower arm. Sasuke's arm buckled a little at the attack, red blood running down in slow streams to the concentrated chakra in his hand.

"Sasuke!"

In the din of birds that filled the empty air–empty of real birds–Sasuke could faintly hear the sound of Naruto's voice in his ear. "Naruto...I'll get him..." Sasuke whispered faintly as he felt his body grow heavier.

The three black marks in each of his bloody eyes spun as he felt his brother standing at his side, right over his left shoulder. He twisted around to catch his brother by surprise, but Itachi was already gone. Sasuke was thrown to the ground as he felt a kunai tear through his shoulder, but the younger Uchiha wasn't going to allow his brother to get the upper hand. He swung his leg around to knock Itachi to the ground.

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto!"

Sasuke's hand slipped for a moment at the second voice. Those weren't coming from his head!

The dark-haired nin's eyes trailed to his brother at the last moment to see the last hand seal of many, but it was enough to know what it was. Sasuke lifted his arm to block the attack, knowing that it was useless. _'Goukakyuu no jutsu! Itachi, you bastard!'_ How dare he use that technique!

The Konoha shinobi rammed his hand through the fireball that flew right at his body. It wasn't going to stop the attack from consuming his body, but at least he was going to take his brother with him. And even if it didn't work, he had a backup...

The sound of screaming birds echoed through the air as Sasuke felt his hand run through muscle and bone, the cracking filling his ears as loudly as the birds that had faded from his hand.

Sasuke's eyes widened. He had actually hit his brother...

Itachi's eyes widened. His brother had actually hit him...

The elder Uchiha fell forward, sinking his torso farther through Sasuke's hand as he tried to swallow the blood that rose up in his throat. However, it refused to go down. Instead, he settled for allowing it to overflow from his mouth, tainting his entire chin and dripping down onto Sasuke's face.

Sasuke turned his face away as the overwhelming scent of blood reached his nose. Dead blood.

The nukenin grabbed his brother's neck with the last of his strength, crushing it in his hand. There was no way that he was going to leave alone. Itachi stared down at his brother as the cursed seal subsided from the younger Uchiha's skin, Itachi's face as expressionless as it was when he began the fight. There was no way that he was going to let his brother go.

"Sasuke!"

With shaky strength, Sasuke lifted his leg and kicked his brother away, his neck half-crushed by the nukenin. Itachi's cooling body rolled a little away, sinking into a pool of blood as his little brother fell back onto the ground, empty of energy, empty of chakra, empty of all thought.

"Sasuke... Sasuke!"

With his fading vision, he could barely see Naruto's bright blond hair in the dim light of fading fire, the only light in the area under the dark sky. The dark-haired boy felt the blond lift his head, propping up his body from the right. He couldn't see his face anymore. He couldn't see anything anymore.

"Sasuke..." But Naruto could see him, and he could see that Sasuke was covered with blood. "Sasuke..." He tried to stifle the tears that threatened to spill out of his eyes. He didn't know that Sasuke couldn't see him anymore. "...your arm..."

"My...dobe..." Sasuke lifted his hand to touch Naruto's face lightly, his voice cracking, ending that one word with a fitful series of coughs. Blood flew from his mouth to his already sticky-red upper limb. The new droplets sank into the rivers on his only arm. There was no way to really know if he had coughed up blood or not. The evidence wasn't visible anymore.

"Na...ruto..." Sakura's eyes trailed to the two boys, her eyes instantly registering the blond head, then the black head on Naruto's chest. "Sas–" she felt Kakashi's hand stop her. "Kakashi-sensei?" She looked up at the grey-haired jounin and saw him looking pass her at Naruto and Sasuke. There was the faintest look of pain on his face.

"Sasuke?" The cold hand that laid on the blond boy's cheek fell to Naruto's side. "Sasuke!" He shook the dark-haired boy in his arms as he called out his name. "Sasuke!"

Sakura ran forward with Kakashi at her side. "Naruto!"

The blond boy's head popped up at his name. For the split second that he was with Sasuke, he had forgotten that Sakura and Kakashi were there. "Sakura-chan!" The blond turned his head quickly to the pink-haired medic-nin. "Help him! Sasuke... Sasuke's not breathing!"

The kunoichi knelt down at the boys' side. From the corner of her eye, she was faintly aware of the dead stare of Itachi's nearby corpse, but she ignored the chills that ran through her body at the bloody stare. Instead, she focussed on the body in front of her.

But it wasn't too long before her hands froze over Sasuke's body. She trailed her fingers through the stream of blood which hung coagulated from his bare right shoulder.

"Naruto...gomen..." Her head had dropped, her eyes shadowed by her pink hair as she stared down at the body of the dark-haired shinobi.

The tears shining in Naruto's eyes spilled over as the sky broke, drenching all of them in unstoppable rain. Sakura couldn't see that he was crying. "Sasuke!" Naruto buried his face in the other boy's still, cold chest. "Sas–!"

In the sudden gust of wind that caught all of them off guard–except for maybe Kakashi who had stepped forward in an attempt to stop it–Sakura saw only the severed strands of short pink hairs fly away from her. The kunai in Kakashi's hand was still as he stood frozen in a stance that denoted his rushing forward...but of course, he wasn't fast enough. Naruto's eyes were wide.

"–s'ke..." He fell forward over Sasuke's still body, the fuuma shuriken stuck in his back.

"Na..." Sakura's mouth moved wordlessly after that as her eyes grew wider with slow realization. "Naruto!" She pulled the fuuma out of the blond boy's back, ignoring the thin wires that still clung to its metal frame. "Naruto...hang on! I'll heal you in a second!"

The blond swatted her hand away as he turned meekly to the pink-haired girl. There was an awkward smile on his face, as if he hadn't even noticed the pain in his back. "Sasuke," he said with an intense cough as he tightened his grip around Sasuke's body. His hands were beginning to shake from his profusely bleeding back. He could taste blood in his mouth, even as his breath shortened.

_**Hey baka! Let the pink-headed girl heal you already. I have no intention of going down with you!**_

Naruto ignored the Kyuubi. He had grown very good at ignoring him over the years. If there was ever a time to ignore the demon fox, he thought now was the time. His one-track mind refused to allow anything else to overwrite his sorrowful thoughts of Sasuke.

_**Are you even listening to me!**_

Red chakra swirled around Naruto's rain-drenched body as he felt the Kyuubi engulf him. He hadn't realized that he was hurt, but the Kyuubi did.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted at him as she clutched his body tightly. The red chakra threatened to blow her away, and it was difficult holding Naruto still. "I..." Her hand shook uncertainly over the blond boy's wet wound. "I'm going to heal you!"

Naruto turned quickly to face Sakura, turning his wound away from her as he mechanically dragged Sasuke's body with him. Blood leaked from his mouth, streaking from his lips, down his chin and neck to his orange jacket. Beads of blood slowly rained onto his trembling hands as he felt the Kyuubi take over. His voice strained through clenched teeth in a wordless cry before he fell over Sasuke's body at a sudden surge of pain.

Kakashi glared at the boy for a moment before pushing him down into the thinning mud for Sakura. This wasn't a time for Naruto's stubbornness.

"I don't care what you want!"

Sakura yelled at him even as she thought that he might want to follow Sasuke, her eyes blurring at the thought that he would want to leave her alone to carry on the name of Team Seven. It was unlike Naruto to want to die. She knew that, but she couldn't help but think that he might do it. For Sasuke, she would do anything, and the same went for Naruto even more than her because...he loved Sasuke more than her.

And she couldn't deny that anymore.

"I..." Her hand glowed over the wound, but...the blood kept pouring. "Heal dammit!" Tints of salt mixed with the rain that fell on her head. "Heal...Naruto!" This was why she became a medic-nin. She wanted to be of some use out here when they were on missions. She had to save him. She wasn't useless anymore. She couldn't be useless anymore! "Heal!" She screamed desperately.

And quickly the wound closed.

She didn't know if it was the power of the Kyuubi, or her force of will, but the wound closed and for a moment, she breathed a sigh of relief...

...until she heard the frantic coughs of the blond shinobi.

"Naruto!" Her hands hovered over his body, the green glow of her shosen jutsu could find no flaw to her work. And she panicked. She was still worthless after all...

'_Internal bleeding? No...that's not it... I've healed every part of him, inside and out... The wound's closed! Completely! He should be fine!'_ Sakura's eyes trailed all along the blond chuunin's body. _'What is it! What can it b–'_

And her eyes caught onto the blood that still poured from Naruto's mouth. It was his lungs. When the fuuma shuriken hit Naruto, it had rent right through his lungs...and in that short time she had tried to heal him, that short time the wound was allowed to bleed, they had filled with blood.

Naruto was drowning in his blood!

"Naruto!" She shouted at him, even as she felt the Kyuubi's chakra push her back, throw her back from the blond shinobi. The Kyuubi was madly trying his best to heal him...but it wasn't working. There was no way to get that blood out...

The kunoichi wasn't always the best of friends with the blond nin. She always ignored him. She yelled at him. She hit him a lot over the head and called him a baka. She had hated the thought of being in a team with him when all she cared about was Sasuke. He was an annoying...loud...stupid...cluelessly naive...nin. But...

Sakura felt a hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder. She turned, startled, to look at her sensei. He had been thrown back by the Kyuubi's chakra as well. "Kakashi-sensei..." she said as she wiped her eyes with her wet arms, but the look on his face–even with his face half covered by that constant mask–held a dangerous premonition.

Through the thin curtain of rain, she looked back at Naruto, but the boy's body was already still; the arms that held Sasuke so tightly before, were now relaxed. They looked...asleep, as if they could open their eyes at any moment...and Sasuke would continue to ignore her with that annoying smirk on his face as Naruto laughed at her and told her that he was only kidding, that he wasn't really dead. She would love to have smacked him over the head then, but...she knew that she wouldn't do anything like that, not if he really was alive. She would probably have been...relieved.

"Naruto?" She took a shifted a slow inch forward, held out her hand to shake him awake. The glow was still there, hovering over the fresh scar which was still visible after healing the wound left by the fuuma shuriken. "Naruto!" She shook him gently. _'Wake up! Wake up, Naruto!'_

Kakashi shook his head lightly as if scolding a naughty student. "Sakura..." he said as he pulled her back. He couldn't really think of anything to say.

"They can't be dead," she said to herself as she clung onto the two boys. "They can't be dead!"

In the midst of Sakura's cries, Kakashi turned his head quickly at a sudden movement in the trees. It couldn't have just been the rain on the leaves. There were no leaves anymore; they were all scattered on the ground around them in melting ash. That meant...

"Sakura, we need to go!" He grabbed the boys in one arm and Sakura in the other before running away. Itachi was dead. Somewhere back along the way they had come, Kisame lay dead. But, that didn't mean there weren't other members of Akatsuki around here. He couldn't expect Sasuke to have killed them all. He was only one boy.

And Kakashi couldn't fight them now. He had already used up too much chakra getting here to hold them back, especially with a bawling girl and two limp bodies in his arms. No. Today, he had to get away.

**End Chapter 8**

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

This is IMPORTANT! I'm going to talk about verb tense agreement. Do I sound like an English teacher to you? Well...I'm not but whether you're writing a story or just writing a fanfic, this is important. If you start in present tense (ie. run, sit, drink, eat, etc and not ran, sat, drank, ate, etc) at the beginning of the story (look at your first sentence), then the rest of the sentences in your story or essay should be in present tense (generally unless you're writing about an event that happened before the time you're talking about and it's not a flashback, then use past tense; eg. Sasuke likes Naruto, but he hated Itachi first). When writing in present tense, the simple sentence (short sentences) is your enemy and you should be writing your sentences with at least ten or more words in them unless you're using them for effect. The reason for this is that short sentences in present tense makes the story choppy, unless you want it that way for effect (again; as in for anger, anxiety, etc). If you start your story in past tense (ie. ran, sat, drunk, ate, you know what I mean!) then the rest of your story should be in past tense (unless you're writing about an even that happened before the time you're talking about and it's not a flashback, then use the past participle; eg. Sasuke liked Naruto, but he had hated Itachi first). There is no restriction on sentence length when writing in past tense. I certainly find it easier, which is why I don't write in present tense anymore, but too many simple sentences when writing in past tense is also bad. More about simple sentences next chapter to explain why that is, I'm trying to keep these tidbits as short as possible.

Fire's babbling:

Fire: (sweats) Okay...I know that section is getting a little long...

Sasuke: (eying the English tidbits) Just how long have you been writing...?

Fire: Since October... (smiles)

Sasuke: You know that's not what I mean...

Fire: (points suddenly behind Sasuke) Sasuke, look! It's Itachi!

Sasuke: (crosses his arms) I'm not going to fall for that...

Itachi: (walks up to Sasuke and looks down at him) ...

Kakashi: (shouting in surprise) Itachi! (falls into a defensive stance)

Sasuke: (quickly turns around) ...!

Itachi: (shunshins away) ...

Sasuke: Itachi! (runs away)

Kakashi: (turns to fire) So...?

Fire: (imitating Kakashi's voice) So...what?

Kakashi: How long _have _you been writing?

Fire: Since I was in elementary school...but not fanfics.

Naruto: (stops crying and looks at Fire with a confused expression) Why did you tell Kakashi-sensei and not Sasuke? (sniff)

Fire: Kakashi's nicer.

Kakashi: (smiles) ...

Naruto: (looks at the fanfic and cries) Waah!

Fire: (looks at the fanfic) What!

Naruto: I'm dead?

Sasuke: (walks back, having given up on trying to catch Itachi) What! I'm dead too!

Kakashi: (still smiling) I'm still alive.

Fire: (snapping at Kakashi) No one cares about that! Sasuke, what did you write!

Itachi: (holds up his hand) I did that.

Sasuke: (annoyed) I only wrote the part when I killed Itachi!

Naruto: (tilting his head to the side) Who wrote the part where I died?

Mizuki: (hiding at the back of the room) ...

Fire: (nervous) Well...I guess we're in a bit of a mess... Please don't stop reading! I'm going to try sorting it all out. I'll bring them back from the dead if I have to!

Sasuke: You're going to have to do that if you want to keep your readers...

Fire: (yelling at Sasuke) Urusai! You'll give away the plotline!

Sasuke: Review. Tell us what you think or Fire might cancel the story. (turns away from the group) Now…I'm going to the crematorium to lie in the incinerator...

Fire: Hey! You're not dead yet! (runs after Sasuke)

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	9. Cenotaph

Fire: This is Chapter 9, unless you got too depressed by the last chapter and decided that it would be best if you stopped reading it now. I understand.

Sasuke: Oi!

Fire: Sasuke! You're alive! (runs up and hugs Sasuke)

Sasuke: (constrained) You're crazy.

Fire: Anyway…how are you feeling?

Sasuke: Still dead.

Fire: (sweats) Um…are you sure? You're standing right there.

Sasuke: (glares at Fire) How would you know how I'm feeling?

Fire: Well…Sasuke seems to be in a foul mood at the moment.

Sasuke: I'm standing right here!

Fire: (sweats profusely) Well…on with the reviews. (looks at Kakashi with his Bag of Reviews)

Kakashi: (holding up the bag) Why do I have to carry the bag?

Fire: (snapping at Kakashi) Just hand us the first review!

Kakashi: (sighs and reaches into the bag) …

Fire: Our first review! (hugs the window) Yes, they'll be back. SASUKE AND NARUTO WILL BE BACK! I know that people are afraid that they might stay dead, but I promise that I'll find a way to bring them back!

Sasuke: I'm standing right here!

Naruto: And aren't you already done with that part of the story?

Fire: Ack! Stop giving away the storyline!

Kakashi: But that's what you were saying.

Fire: (sweats) Well…First of all I want to apologize if the next few chapters are too Sakura-centric. It's very important if we want to bring the boys back. I can't just have them pop out of nowhere and not explain what's going on.

Naruto: See? You ARE giving the plotline away!

Sasuke: What are you complaining about, dobe? You're not even co-writing this story like me. I should be the one who's angry. (angry) Who gave you permission to kill me?

Kakashi: Um… (holds up another window from the Bag of Reviews) We have another review.

Fire: (grabs the window) Yay!

Sasuke: They're for me too, y'know?

Fire: Positive reinforcement:) I'll answer universal concerns here but I'll also be replying using the reply function on the reviews page so don't be too worried if I'm not saying anything. I know that I'm an airhead sometimes.

Sasuke: (mumbling under his breath) How true. (looking at the audience again) That's it! Roll the chapter before Fire starts talking again!

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**Chapter 9: Cenotaph**

**I**n the gloom of a raging storm, Tsunade stared out the window of her office. It wasn't something of which she did a lot, but today, work just didn't seem right. Today, she really didn't want to do anything, and she wasn't lying this time just to get out of doing real work. Even Shizune wasn't complaining today.

"It's passing, ne?" She said with a bittersweet smile as she leaned back in her chair. She turned a little to look at Jiraiya. "It was good...wasn't it?" She couldn't bring herself to say it. Funeral. She couldn't bring herself to say that word. It still hadn't sunk in yet, and she wanted to give it some time before she accepted that the two boys were really gone.

"Yeah..." the white-haired man said heavy-heartedly. "The storm really is passing."

"Thanks to our two little heroes...the village can finally have some sort of peace..."

They were silent for a long time after that as the sky, which had stormed only a few days ago–when Kakashi had slunk back with three children in his arms–began to roll its clouds back into its closet. Tsunade didn't know whether to be relieved or sad that day.

Four went. Two returned alive. The sentries who had stood at the gates found Kakashi collapsed not too far from the gates, his hitai-ate slipping from his head as the rain soaked his body through. The girl was unconscious, and for a little while, the two men thought that the boys were unconscious as well–over the years, they've gotten used to seeing Team Seven return in such a shape–until...they saw that the blond-haired boy and the dull black-haired boy's chests weren't rising.

Tsunade shielded her eyes for a moment as she hid the tears of quiet relief from her old friend. She was glad that her apprentice had survived this ordeal...but, she had to wonder if it was really a good idea or not. She had to wonder if Sakura would be able to deal with this. Born in a time of peace...death wasn't something that the pink-haired kunoichi was likely to stomach easily.

**S**akura's hair was still drenched from the rain that had fallen only a few moments before. The sun was beginning to break through the grey clouds now, and soon, her hair would be dry once again. But, she was too busy to really care about her hair, not like she used to.

Her hands grasped the kunai tighter; the blood that coated the handle was making it slipperier, and she wasn't getting a very good grip. Her writing was a little crooked, but still legible. It wasn't the fault of the blisters on her hands. Her eyes weren't working either.

She wiped her eyes again with the back of her arm before continuing on. She still had another name to carve into the cenotaph. She still had Naruto's name to write.

"Kuso, why do their names have to be so long?" She wiped her eyes again.

"Sakura-chan..." Kakashi stood behind her, but she already knew that he was there, just as he knew that she would be here. "You don't have to do this..." His voice was almost reluctant. _'Hokage-sama will assign someone to do it. You should go and rest for a little while.'_

Sakura ignored him as she carved out the first character. "U...zu..." She mumbled under her breath.

"Sakura..."

"You carved them too...didn't you, Kakashi-sensei?" Her voice was soft as she spoke. "Uchiha Obito..."

For a short while, there was only the sound of metal on stone. Sakura could see the characters a little above the one she had chiselled into the stone, and the one she was _still_ chiselling into the stone.

Kakashi was silent. How was he supposed to answer that question?

Sakura's breath was haggard under the strain of chipping stone. "...ma...ki." She had the surname down. "Na...ru...to."

She looked over her shoulder at her sensei who looked a little dejected. "Akatsuki's retreating for now, right?" She sounded almost cheerful, but it was as fake as the smile that Naruto had on his face after Sasuke left. She turned back to the monolith as she brushed off the little chips of wet stone that still clung to the shaky names. "I shouldn't have let them go..."

"Come on...I'll buy you some ramen," Kakashi said, causing a small laugh to escape from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Yeah..." The girl wiped her eyes again. She was trying to be strong. She really was... "Except, I'm not..." Naruto. The name hung unsaid in the air as both their faces fell again. "...hungry," she said instead.

"I'll buy you some ramen anyway," the grey-haired jounin said as he led her away from the cenotaph. He shouldn't have said ramen. He could have said anything other than ramen. But, it was a habit. Naruto always wanted ramen when he was depressed. He had just forgotten that Naruto wasn't here...anymore.

The pink-haired girl nodded slowly as she followed her sensei back toward the village. She cast one last look at the stone monolith with its two new lines before running after her sensei. These weren't going to be the last names to appear on the stone–she knew that–but that wasn't what was running through her mind as she looked at it. For now, she had other things on her mind...even though she realized that her name could very well end up on that stone one day. But she couldn't allow her name to appear on that stone...not yet anyway.

'_I really envy you, Naruto,'_ she thought as she wiped the last of her tears from her eyes. She wasn't going to cry anymore. _'You get to be with Sasuke...'_ Her mind had sunk into a corner to sulk then. "I'm just not strong enough to come after you..."

"Did you say something, Sakura?" Kakashi looked down at his student, his only student now.

The pink-haired girl stared up at her sensei and gave him the best smile she could gather with the turmoil inside her little body. "N–no...I didn't say anything, Kakashi-sensei!"

'_Did you really love him more than me? Is that possible?'_

Her mind screamed in her head. However, all she had left was the sudden realization that had crossed her mind that day. She had thought that Naruto loved Sasuke more than her, but it wasn't as if she could really know now.

"Ramen...?" Ayame the ramen girl watched uncertainly as Sakura and Kakashi took their seats in front of the counter. She looked at Teuchi at the stove.

"...on the house today," he said as he placed two bowls down in front of the jounin and the kunoichi. He gave them a small, encouraging smile.

Sakura felt her breath grow short at that, and water welled up in her eyes, but she refused to cry. She could just hear Naruto now. He would definitely be disappointed.

'_We're only dead, Sakura-chan! Stop being such a crybaby!'_

'_Hn!' _Sasuke wouldn't say anything, but he would definitely be agreeing with Naruto.

'_But...if you're not hungry, can I have your ramen?' _There would be a huge pleadingly expectant smile on the blond shinobi's face.

And Sasuke would sigh and look disinterestedly away.

The pink-haired girl's head just sank a little lower as her hand made its way to the chopsticks. "A–arigatou," she said as she cracked the chopsticks carefully. "Itadak–" she stopped, her words caught in her throat as her eyes filled with tears again. She wasn't too sure if she could really eat ramen yet...or ever again. "Gomen..." She placed the chopsticks down, not daring to look up. "I–I can't..." She backed away, leaving only two teardrops on the counter.

Kakashi sighed as he looked worriedly at Ayame and Teuchi. "The pain is still too new, ne?" He spoke slowly as he grabbed the bowl of ramen left on the counter. "I doubt she'll really get over it... No one really does..."

Sakura stopped in the middle of the village. To one side, there was Naruto's old apartment. To the other, there was the old Uchiha estate, truly a ghost town now. She couldn't bring herself to walk in either direction.

The kunoichi sank down to the ground, her head buried in her knees. She didn't care that everyone was staring at her. She didn't care that their actions could have brought about the end of Akatsuki by destroying two vital limbs, and the Kyuubi they coveted. She just wanted them back!

"Is that selfish of me?" She said into her balled up body.

"Waagh!" The sound of falling boxes sounded around her, and a few items fell on Sakura's head.

Sakura looked around at a few cardboard boxes strewn around her. It took her a moment to realize what they were, to recognize the many cups of ramen that could only belong to a blond shinobi she used to know, and the red and white fan crests that belonged to a raven-haired shinobi she once knew.

"G–gomen nasai," the boy said as he bowed apologetically to Sakura. "I–!"

Sakura was staring straight at the man, her hand pinning the boy to the ground, and when she looked around, she could see many more boxes held by the boy's bunshin. "Wh–what are you all doing with these boxes!" All these boxes...they were all filled with Naruto and Sasuke's things!

The boy beneath her hand vanished with a puff of smoke. The boy was a bunshin as well. "Uh...Hokage-sama has ordered that Uzumaki Naruto-san and Uchiha Sasuke-san's personal belongings be removed to storage until a further time when they may be needed again," the real boy said shakily.

"No!" Sakura grabbed a few cups of ramen which were strewn around her. "No! You can't!" Her mind was ranting irrationally now. Naruto and Sasuke...they'll be so angry when they come back. They'll be so angry that they can't find their things!

"Sakura-chan..." Kakashi-sensei was behind her, and she knew it. "Let them do their work."

Sakura slowly lifted herself from the ground, only stared at her sensei. "But..." Her voice was dripping with tears. "...they–" Dull hiccups erupted from her throat and she doubled over again. "They can't be–" She dug her palm into one eye, smearing the tears away.

'_They can't be gone! They can't be dead!'_

Kakashi slowly patted her on the head in an effort to comfort the girl, but he could never know if he was making her feel better or not. In the end, it was hard not to believe his own words, the words he had said to Teuchi and Ayame only a few moments before. He really couldn't know if she would get over their deaths. His teammates...Obito and Rin...even he hadn't really gotten used to them being gone yet. He was never close to them–Sakura was closer to Sasuke and Naruto–but he and his teammates were together for much longer. They became chuunin together... That was more than Sakura was likely to have.

Sakura clung to her sensei's leg in an effort to stabilize herself. True shinobi must never ever show their emotions... A true shinobi must never show her emotions!

"I can't do this..." She can't be here and be a shinobi without them! "I can't do this..." There was resolve in her voice. She can't just be a shinobi anymore. She had thought that she was becoming stronger... But she was only becoming strong for them...

The grey-haired jounin didn't know what to do. He wasn't well known for his ability to comfort people in distress. So, he took her home and hoped that her parents could care for her. That was all he really could do.

And that was the last time he truly saw Sakura. He never really saw her again.

A few days later, the masked jounin had dropped by the home of his only student to see how she was, but had found the house in a frenzy. Both Sakura's mother and Sakura's father were running in circles, their bunshin also running around in circles. Not literally of course, but they were running all over the place.

Kakashi had asked them what was going on, why they were running around like that. And a bunshin of Sakura's mother stopped long enough to explain to him that Sakura was missing.

No one found her. No one saw her leave. There wasn't even a report from any of the gate sentinels of a pink-haired kunoichi leaving the village...but then, Sakura always was good at genjutsu. If she had wanted to leave without anyone noticing, Kakashi had no doubt that she would succeed.

And she did succeed. No one else saw her afterwards either.

_**G**omen...Kakashi-sensei. I really tried...but I can't be the kunoichi that I had hoped to be. Please, don't blame yourself. You were a great sensei and I feel honoured to have been your student. Take care of Kasan and Tousan for me...and Tsunade-shishou... Tell them that... Tell them whatever you can think of to ease their pain. And, don't worry about me. I'll be fine._

_Sakura_

A single note on the Icha Icha Paradise collection...just to make sure that Kakashi would get it. She wasn't going to be a Konoha shinobi anymore, and the note was as much as she could bring herself to do. If she had told them, they would have stopped her...and she couldn't have that.

So, without looking back, Sakura left Konoha, her Leaf hitai-ate resting on the neatly folded note with the name 'Hatake Kakashi-sensei' written plainly at the top.

**End Chapter 9**

**End Book 1: Wait for Me: Leaving**

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Note: **GO TO _WAIT FOR ME: FOLLOWING_ TO CONTINUE THE STORY and _WAIT FOR ME: CRYSTALLINE MIRAGE_ FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION. THAT'S THE PREQUEL.**

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Moral of the story:

It is selfish to ask someone to wait for you. Tragedy only waits for love born out of accepting this request. The pain of worrying often sways unwavering devotion, but when a promise is kept such unwavering devotion is worthy of respect. Not everyone is capable of keeping such a dense promise.

Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Here's the long awaited simple sentences! Hooray! Okay, now I'm being overdramatic. I'm sure that no one has been waiting for simple sentences, but all the sentences I've used so far are simple sentences. English is known as a SVO language (Japanese is SOV). That means that the simplest sentence written in English should have a Subject, a Verb, and an Object. Although objects are not completely necessary in English, usually a sentence will have one. Try to use simple sentences sparingly. In a story, the most basic simple sentence (a short SVO sentence) should be used like the fragment. Only for effect. Usually simple sentences should have a conjunction (ie. and, but, because…etc) or a preposition (ie. about, in, after…etc) to make it a little longer, and to allow it to flow more fluidly with the rest of the story and other sentences. Simple sentences are good for statements ("what" sentences) but stories can't be a conglomeration of "What" sentences. "What" sentences are what propels a story forward, but it's the "why" and the "how" which make a good story.

Fire's babbling:

Sakura: ... (reads the chapter again) What do you mean by becoming chuunin together? We never became chuunin together!

Kakashi: (smiling) Exactly. At least Rin, Obito and I became chuunin together, at the same time. We were together longer too.

Naruto: (crying) Yeah! Gaara ruined our chuunin exam!

Gaara: (glares at Naruto) …

Fire: (sense of accomplishment and finality) That's it!

Sasuke: (staring at Fire) That's it? That can't be the end! I can't die! I'm the hero in this story!

Naruto: (confused) I thought I was the hero.

Fire: (holding up nervous hands) Well…you'll have to read the next book for that. It's the end of the first volume, the first book!

Sasuke: What a rip off! (turning away from the group) I don't need this! (shunshins away)

Sakura: (yelling) And whose great idea was that! I'm not a wimpy girl like that!

Kakashi: (depressed) And that's all the chapters I get?

Fire: Well…Sakura, you're a very emotional person, so it can and probably would happen if Sasuke and Naruto died. As for you… (looking at Kakashi) …you're in the next story, so you'll definitely have more chapters then.

Kakashi: Can I be the hero?

Sakura: No! I have to be the main character in the next story. Your next protagonist should be a girl!

Naruto: (crying) I'm not the hero anymore? I'm dead? (sinks to the ground in depression) I should have cremated myself when I had the chance.

Fire: I have enough complaints on my hands without you adding to it Naruto!

Naruto: It can't be the end! It can't!

Fire: It's not! (turning back to the audience) See you in the next story/chapter…if you choose to read on. (crying) I'm going to lose so many readers because of what you did, Mizuki!

Mizuki: …

Fire: Well…I'm definitely going to bring them back, you'll see!

Sasuke: (reappearing) We never know with you. (sighing) I'm just going to take a vacation. I need a break from your insanity.

Fire: I will bring them back! I promise! The next book is _Wait for Me: Following_, and there's also the prequel _Wait for Me: Crystalline Mirage_, which takes place before this book. If you were wondering just what happened before this story like how Sasuke returned to Konoha, and what led to Kakashi's leaving, and all that mysterious stuff that seemed to just appear out of nowhere, read the prequel. For the rest of you, who don't care about any of that, just continue on to the second book. Just keep reading, and review! Review!

Sasuke: Yeah, or Fire might cancel the entire series, and believe me, it just might happen. (nodding) Even though the entire series has already been thought out, planned and practically finished.

Fire: (shouting at Sasuke) Urusai! Or I won't bring you back!

Sasuke: Phft…like you would.

Fire: I also want to know if anyone's still reading the English tidbits. If you want them to stay, add it in your review or email me about it, otherwise I might stop putting them up in the next book. I know I sound like an English professor.

Sasuke: (mumbling under his breath) I told you Fire might start canceling things.

Fire: (shouting) That's not what I mean!

Sasuke: Review. Make this lunatic stop yelling at me.

Fire: (yelling) I'm not yelling!

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